


Time

by Laurawrzz



Series: Destiny/Memento Collection [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood
Genre: Abduction, Alien Abduction, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Babies, Destiny/Memento, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Madness, Married The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Mind Control, Miscarriage, Murder, Outer Space, Parents Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Post-Episode AU: s04e13 Journey's End, Romance, Smut, Tenth Doctor Angst, Tenth Doctor Era, Tenth Doctor Whump, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Fluff, Terminal Illnesses, The Doctor (Doctor Who) Whump, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 10:42:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 77,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24848476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz
Summary: "There's something wrong with the Doctor. Very wrong. As I'm sure you're all aware during his time in Volag-Noc he was gassed with a deadly compound called alere flamman. When we got home, I fully scanned him to find it wasn't out of his system, and never will be. It's permanently attached to his blood, bonded until he regenerates. This also means ... I'm sorry, but the alere flamman won't just sit there. It will multiply again. He is very, very ill. I believe he has three months to live."~ ΘΣ ~After twelve years of imprisonment in Volag-noc the Doctor is terminally ill, giving him and Rose three months to find a shared lost memory in order for him to regenerate into the same body. Trouble is, there's someone on their tail who will stop at nothing to put an end to the Doctor by any means necessary.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Other(s), Martha Jones/Mickey Smith, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Destiny/Memento Collection [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/268567
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. 18th May 2013 - 10:30:22

**Author's Note:**

> Reworked story originally posted on FF.net many years ago. This series is an unashamed epic TenRose baby continuing collection, that utilises every tiny tidbit of Who canon, both in the show and in its extended lore. It's also exceptionally whumpy and some smidgens of smut enroute. So if that isn't your thing, run awaaaay! :o
> 
> At the end of the previous story, the Shadow Proclamation fell and the Doctor returned from Volag-noc with a terminal illness.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Jackie accidentally discover the Doctor’s terminal illness, as he and Rose prepare to find the missing memory that will allow him to regenerate.

"... So at seven o'clock, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked straight past the doorway to the packed Great Hall, which was glittering invitingly with gold plates and candles, and directed their steps instead toward the dungeons. The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick's party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful: These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Harry shivered and drew his robes tightly around him, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard ..."

"Jack," the Doctor interrupted, poking his head inside his daughter's bedroom door where Jack was reading to the girl from the tried and tested Harry Potter book. "Finish up, Leah needs to go to sleep."

"I'm not tired," the four-year-old insisted, despite the fact her tone of voice alone was laden with lethargy.

"Maybe not, but you're ill, so go to sleep," the Doctor ordered. "And eat any and all chicken soup brought to you. Chicken soup has mystical healing powers. We are still yet to unearth its true power."

"But I'm fine."

"You aren't."

"But -"

"Sorry, Dad wins," Jack interrupted with a grin, and snapped the book shut. "To be continued! Go to sleep."

"Aww," Leah said disappointedly as Jack leant forward to kiss her forehead and tuck her in.

"Later," Jack assured her, standing up. "Good night. Shout if you need anything."

"Night," Leah murmured, turning over to hug her teddy tighter. As he left the Doctor closed the door behind him and immediately strode off to the kitchen with nothing but a small beckoning motion with his fingers. Jack supposed he was meant to follow.

When they got to the kitchen Rose was there finishing up a mug of tea along with the Doctor's brother Braxiatel, sitting at the table. The Doctor went straight to his wife, perching himself on the tabletop next to her.

"You off, then?" Jack asked, looking between the Doctor and Rose.

The Doctor nodded. "We'll be back tonight."

"And you still won't tell me where you're going?"

"Nope," the Doctor confirmed, smiling winsomely. Jack sighed.

"Mum'll be here in a minute," Rose said, finishing her tea and setting it on the side.

The Doctor nodded. "Got our numbers?"

"Yep."

"I don't understand why you don't just let me look after the tots," Brax insisted. 

The Doctor snorted with laughter. “Thanks Brax, but I couldn't trust you to look after my plant, never mind my children.”

“I did everything on your guide, letter for letter,” Brax insisted lamely.

“Except the letters that combined into the arrangement of the words 'water' and 'it'?” the Doctor wondered vaguely.

Brax sighed. “In my defence, your handwriting is appalling.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes just as Jackie came in the door, Tony at her side.

"I'm 'ere, what's the crisis?" she asked.

"We need you to look after Leah, Mum. She's got chickenpox. We should be back by tonight," Rose told her, gazing at Tony with a frown.

“Where're you goin'?”

“Manchester,” Rose replied without really thinking about it, before realising what she'd done and looking at the Doctor with a wince and apologetic expression. She quickly changed the subject. “Has he had chickenpox yet?” she asked, pointing at Tony.

Jackie shook her head. “Now we're 'ere, hoping he'll get it. Why d'you 'ave to go to Manchester anyway?”

“Why do you want to make your son ill?” the Doctor wondered, partly as a means of changing the subject but mostly out of curiosity for this new human custom he’d never heard of before.

“It's chickenpox, ain't it?” Jackie dismissed, as if that explained everything. “Why are you goin' to Manchester?”

“What about chickenpox?” the Doctor persisted.

“People say it's better to get it when you're a kid, else it's really bad later,” Rose explained to him.

“Oh,” the Doctor muttered, scratching his head. 

“I thought you were a doctor?” Jackie said with a roll of her eyes, but spoke again before the Doctor could interject. “Why are you avoidin' the question? Why are you goin' to Manchester?”

“We just need to see a friend, Mum,” Rose insisted, but already knew her mum well enough to know she wouldn't back down.

“Can't it wait?” Jackie wondered seriously.

“Not really.”

“You're 'appy to wander off to Manchester while your daughter's sick?” Jackie surmised, glaring at the Doctor.

“It's urgent,” the Doctor insisted, starting to get a little wound up. “Leah's fine. It's just chickenpox.”

“You can't know that! Kitty's boy, Jason, ended up in 'ospital when 'e got chickenpox.”

“Mum, please,” Rose cut in as she rested a hand on the Doctor's arm to try and keep him calm, but Jackie wasn't paying her any attention.

“You're supposed to be lookin' after 'em!” Jackie snapped at the Doctor.

“Jackie, we wouldn’t leave her if we didn’t have to …!” the Doctor maintained, annoyed.

“If she got really bad we wouldn't even know what to do with her whole alien thing!”

"I'm here," Braxiatel put in somewhat quietly, but he was completely ignored.

“Mum!” Rose squeaked, tightening her grip on the Doctor’s arm to try and calm him.

“You promised me, Doctor, you promised you'd look after them!”

“I am!”

“Well you'd better start workin' harder!”

“I ...” the Doctor began, but abruptly stopped, his breath catching in his throat.

Rose saw it coming. “No, no, no!” she cried as the Doctor shrieked and collapsed. Brax immediately dived forward to catch him, but the sheer weight forced him to his knees.

"Doctor!?" Jack shouted in alarm, helping to support the Doctor on his knees, every single muscle in his body tensed up. Jackie just watched, wide-eyed as he began to shake, his eyes wide and staring transfixed at the far wall with quiet, strained moans slipping out.

“What the hell?!” Jackie yelped, leaping back with her hand over her mouth in shock and terror. “I bloody killed him!”

"Mum, calm down, just help us," Rose said quickly, positioning herself to carry the Doctor.

"Rose, what the hell is going on?" Jack asked quickly, shocked.

"Just help us," Rose insisted, indicating the Doctor's body with her head. "I'll explain everythin', I swear, just help us."

After a moment's pause, Jack just nodded and moved into position. The Doctor was still completely rigid, and it took all four of them to gain a secure hold on him, lifting him up until together. They took him as quickly as they could to the nearest bedroom, and lowered his stiff body gently down on the bed. Rose quickly loosened his tie and shirt, before running into the adjoining bathroom. Jackie just watched, horrified and confused before Rose came back in with a wet flannel and commenced mopping his already sweaty face and chest. 

"Rose, what's wrong with 'im?" Jackie squeaked, not really knowing what to do as the Doctor continued to sweat. "Is 'e havin' a fit!?"

“No, he's in pain,” Rose said quickly, pressing a kiss to his forehead. 

"Pain!? How? Why?"

Rose ignored her mother for the moment, directing her attention to the Doctor. "It'll be okay I promise, just relax," she said so soothingly she almost hummed it. 

"Hurts," the Doctor rasped. 

"I know, it'll be over soon."

"Rose, you've gotta tell us what's going on or we can't help," Jack said seriously, resting a hand on the Doctor's arm.

"No," the Doctor suddenly gasped. 

Rose immediately cupped his face gently. "Doctor, they need to hear this. We can't keep hidin'. Just Jack and Mum, yeah? They need to know.”

The Doctor didn't answer for a moment. "Okay," he finally gasped out. 

"Brax," Rose prompted. 

Brax nodded, standing up to address the frantic humans. "There's something wrong with Thete. Very wrong. As I'm sure you're all aware during his time in Volag-Noc he was gassed with a deadly compound called alere flamman. When we got home, I fully scanned him to find it wasn't out of his system, and never will be. It's permanently attached to his blood, bonded until he regenerates. This also means ... I'm sorry, but the alere flamman won't just sit there. It will multiply again. Thete is very, very ill. I believe he has three months to live."

"What!?" Jackie shrieked as Jack swore loudly, the both of them gazing at the Doctor...

"For now the symptoms are treatable with medication," Brax continued after he'd acknowledged the replies. "But any raise in blood pressure causes him extreme pain that can't be rectified with painkillers."

"We can't stress him out, or he ends up like this," Rose clarified, gesturing at the man on the bed. 

"So he's dying," Jack surmised quietly. 

"… Yeah," Rose answered flatly.

"So why doesn't he regenerate?" Jack asked. 

"We have a way he can regenerate into the same body and mind," Rose explained slowly. "But ..."

She suddenly trailed off, unable to find the words. 

"But what?" Jackie prompted. 

"Thete and Rose have lost a memory," Brax continued, glancing at Rose. "One of their memories are blocked and without that he can't finish the template regeneration."

"Is this about what happened in the Unit hospital?" Jack suddenly asked, frowning. 

Rose nodded silently. "We need to find out what happened to us in Manchester that made us wipe our memories there, Jack. Without knowin’ that, he can’t do the template regeneration.”

Jack nodded. 

Jackie blinked. "You said you..." she began weakly. 

"I'm sorry, Mum, we wanted to sort this out quietly. Just don't tell anyone else. If they knew he was dyin'..."

She didn't finish the sentence. 

"Does Leah know?" Jack asked. 

"No," Rose said, shaking her head. 

"You should tell her. She might know what happened to you, or at least give you some ideas," Jack insisted. “She was around, wasn't she? Nobody wiped her memory.”

"I know, we just ... I can't tell her Daddy's dying," Rose muttered quietly. 

Silence followed. 

"Do you want me to get her?" Brax wondered. 

Rose glanced at the Doctor, who was still unable to talk. He was quite clearly trying, his breath repeatedly catching in his throat.

Silently, Rose nodded. 

* * *

By the time Brax got back with Leah in his arms, the Doctor was sitting up with a little help from Jack and Rose. Brax sat the little girl on the bed next to her father, who wrapped his arms around her.

“Why did you wake me up?” Leah complained tiredly.

“There’s something you can help us with and it’s really urgent,’ Jack said, stooping to her level.

“What?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Do you remember being in the Unit hospital?" Jack began. “You had Zolynawian Reverse Influenza.”

"Yeah," Leah replied, gazing up at her father.

"D'you remember the monsters?"

"Yeah."

“Can you tell us what happened after we got back to the hospital?"

"Um, Daddy was ill cos of his arm and Mummy stayed with him a lot in hozziepol," Leah began. "You took me back to the TARDIS, Uncle Jack, until Mummy came back and her eyes were all wet and she was really sad all the time. When Daddy came back he played with me a lot, and Mummy wasn't around a lot. But he kept falling asleep."

“Falling asleep?” Brax echoed. “What do you mean?”

“He would play with me then stop and fall asleep for a bit until he woke up and we'd play again.”

"Why was he falling asleep?" Brax asked.

"I dunno," she replied, shrugging as she took her father's hand in both of hers, playing with his fingers.

"Did any of us say anything about that or Mummy or Daddy, Leah?" Jack asked next.

"I dunno. But you were getting mad at Daddy, Uncle Jack."

"What did I say?"

"I dunno," she admitted. "But then when you were putting me to bed Mummy and Daddy were shouting a lot at each other. You ran out. Then Daddy woke me up later and said I had to go to Torchwood cos there was something you had to do."

"Okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome.” She looked up at her father again, who hadn’t spoken a word. "Don't be sad, Daddy."

"I'm not sad,’ he muttered, still hugging her.

"Yeah, you are."

"What makes you think I'm sad?"

She didn't even blink, staring up at him with those big eyes. "Cos you're hugging me really tight."

He smiled briefly at that. "I'm just a bit sick, but I'll get better, because you’ve really helped me there.”

"Promise?"

"Yeah."

“And will you stop being sick?”

He smiled again. “I'll try very, very hard.”

“Okay,” she replied, seemingly satisfied.

“Me and Dad are goin' out for the day,” Rose began, kneeling down to her. “But Granny, Uncle Jack, Uncle Brax and everyone else are gonna be here for you all the time. If you need more itching cream just let them know.”

“Okay. Where're you going?”

Jack met Rose's gaze, who looked at the Doctor, who shook his head almost imperceptibly.

“Manchester,” Rose told her. “We're gonna go and see someone who might be able to fix Daddy.”

“Okay,” she said, accepting it immediately. “Night night.”

“Night night,” the Doctor replied. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” she said, reaching up to her mother for a goodbye hug.

“Night night,” Rose said as Brax picked her up and carried her back out of the door, Jackie immediately following with Tony in tow.

Jack turned to the Doctor. “All right?”

“Yeah,” the Doctor muttered, using a combination of Rose, Jack and the bed to get up. “It's just temporary,” he continued, blinking a few times. “Be fine in a minute.”

For a moment there was silence as Jack continued to gaze at him, not letting go. “... Why didn't you tell me?” he asked quietly, traces of genuine hurt plain in his tone.

“We didn't wanna burden you,” Rose answered honestly, glancing at the Doctor.

“You're not a burden, you're my best friends,” Jack replied honestly.

The Doctor finally pulled away from them both to stand confidently under his own power, wiping at his eyes. “You've done so much for us, Jack. Stand down. This is for me and Rose to sort out.”

“But I need to do something,” Jack insisted. “Gimme something I can do for you. Let me help. I’m missing the same memory - there’s gotta be something you can use me for.”

“Look after the kids,” Rose said seriously.

Jack sighed. “You're really not gonna let me help, are you?”

“That  _ is  _ helping,” the Doctor countered.

Jack sighed again. “All right. But if you need me for anything, anything at all, you just call me, okay?”

Rose nodded. “Thank you, Jack.”

“And you'd better come back with a cure,” he added after a moment's thought.

The Doctor smiled a little at that. “We'll try. And Brax knows, but keep Alex and Kiana separate from Leah, she's too infectious. And, remember ...”

“I know,” Jack began as though he'd repeated his following phrase a thousand times before. “Any scratch, bruise or hint of sadness on any of their adorable little faces then I'm a flat, lemon meringue pancake.”

“Good, just checking,” the Doctor insisted.

“Sweetheart!” Jackie was back with Tony, looking at the Doctor in alarm. “You ain't gone yet? You've gotta find that cure!”

“We're goin'!” Rose insisted.

Jackie immediately dived for her to give her a kiss, and then to the Doctor for the same, which made him squirm and protest as usual. She then embraced him in a hug – tight and full of love.

“Please don't die,” she whispered in his ear, so quietly the others couldn't have heard.

“I'll be fine,” was all he replied as a whisper directly back to her.

She pulled back, gazing up at him for a moment before finally letting go and clapping her hands together. “Right, bye then!”

Rose giggled. “Bye, Mum,” she replied, taking her husband's hand and leading him out of the door where Brax was approaching.

“Good luck,” he said sincerely, sticking out a hand for his brother to shake. “And don't do anything to that blood pressure. Stay calm.”

“Oh, you know me,” the Doctor responded flippantly with a wave of a dismissing hand.

Brax's eyebrows lowered. “Yes, I do. That's why I said it.”

Rose giggled, reaching up to Brax for a hug. “See you later.”

“What are you implying?” the Doctor asked seriously as she and Brax parted.

Brax just smiled. “Nothing,” he said, reaching up to tousle his little brother's hair. “Good luck, Thete.”

The Doctor patted down his hair indignantly, before running both hands through it to completely mess it up again. He then took his wife's hand again, gave a final wave to Brax and led her through the sterilisation field and out into Torchwood.

Immediately the Doctor's leg was commandeered by Alex, the little one-year-old clinging on tightly. The Doctor dropped down to hug him as Ianto approached.

“Where's Kiana?” Rose asked, looking around.

Ianto frowned. “You can't hear them?”

Rose stopped, listening for a moment until she realised the Hub was filled with the sound of two babies laughing, rattles being shaken and toys making repetitive beeping noises.

“Oh,” she realised. “I dunno, I think you sorta tune it out after a while.”

Ianto smiled. “She's playing with Anwen, ma’am.”

“Gwen's here?”

“Yeah, in the sitting area with Martha.”

Rose left, leaving the Doctor to scoop up his son and follow her with Ianto. Sure enough he happened across Gwen and Martha, sitting on the sofa with Anwen and Kiana sitting on the rug eating rattles and talking nonsense.

Martha saw him and smiled. “You going, then?”

The Doctor nodded. “Back tonight.”

“Good, we need to sort out my birth plan tonight.”

“Oh?”

“Where I'm gonna deliver, silly,” Martha laughed, indicating her now very heavy pregnancy. “I'd rather you delivered.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Wait, when did we discuss this?”

“Tonight,” Martha replied.

“Oh,” he said for the second time.

“Something wrong?” she asked, unnerved by his disposition.

“Oh, no,” the Doctor said quickly, glancing at Rose who stayed silent. They both knew that if they didn't find their memory, by July the Doctor would have deteriorated so badly that he wouldn't be able to stand up, let alone deliver a baby. “I'd love to.”

She laughed again. “Don't tell me you can't deliver a baby.” 

“Oh, yes, of course,” the Doctor said. “It’s just …” He gestured to the two babies on the floor. “Does this place seem less like a secret alien-hunting base and more like a crèche to you?”

The women giggled as Ianto stepped up beside him.

“I like it,” he admitted, producing an envelope from his pocket and handing it to the Doctor. “Train tickets and £500 in twenties for you, sir.”

“What’s the money for?” the Doctor asked, staring at the envelope.

“Coffee, sir,” Ianto responded, a small smirk on his face.

“One day you’ll forget to call me sir,” the Doctor said seriously.

“Never, sir.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, slipping the envelope into his inside pocket.

“I could drive you to the station, ma’am, sir?”

“Don’t worry, it’s a nice day, we’ll walk,” Rose assured him as they said goodbye to the kids. Alex just gazed up at him.

“We’re back tonight, okay?” the Doctor told the blue-eyed boy, who nodded and hugged him tighter. Several moments passed before the Doctor managed to peel the boy off of him and sit him on the sofa.

“Bye, Alex,” the Doctor whispered to him.

Everyone waited, just staring at the boy, willing him to speak. He didn’t, and just waved instead.

The Doctor withheld a sigh and just waved back with a smile, giving the boy one last kiss before he cemented his hand back in Rose’s, and they left.


	2. 18th May 2013 - 15:47:13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose head to Manchester in search of their missing memory, but UNIT aren’t pleased to see them.

The Doctor and Rose strolled in the Manchester UNIT hospital and saw Pam sitting at reception, as always. The Doctor led the way, strolling up, leaning on the desk, and putting his most charismatic smile in place.

“Afternoon,” he greeted.

“Just one moment, please,” Pam said, tapping away on her keyboard for a few seconds before spreading a smile and turning to them.

The smile promptly tightened. “Doctor,” she realised.

“Hello, Pam, isn’t it? We met before, a couple of years ago when we brought our daughter in.”

She continued to gaze at him, that smile persisting even though her eyes appeared to be slightly crazed. The Doctor noticed she had her hand under the desk facing upwards, and her wrist was moving in an erratic up and down motion as though pressing something under the desk. “Yes … How is the little … tyke?”

“Great, thank you,” the Doctor replied, still staring at her wrist. “She’s four, now.”

Her eyes followed his gaze down to her wrist, but immediately looked back up again. She quite clearly knew that he knew what she was doing. She didn’t stop.

“Oh, they’re adorable at that age,” Pam replied. “And nice to see your partner again … Rose, isn’t it?”

“Yep,” Rose confirmed, also staring at her hand.

Then they were gripped in silence.

“Sorry,” the Doctor began, almost laughing. “Security a little slow today?”

The door suddenly burst open and five UNIT soldiers filtered in, guns pointed straight at them.

* * *

“Are you gettin’ the feelin’ we didn’t exactly leave here on good terms before?” Rose asked the Doctor seriously as they sat side by side in a secure waiting room, three UNIT soldiers on the perimeter and four with their guns pointing at their various essential body parts.

“I know that letter we left ourselves after we wiped our memory said they wouldn’t be happy to see us again but I didn’t quite imagine this,” the Doctor admitted, glaring at one of the soldiers pointing a gun at him. The soldier didn’t flinch.

“Wonder what we did?” Rose mused, frowning. “What do we know so far?”

“Well …” the Doctor began, clearing his throat. “Leah had been taken by a child-killing species of some kind, Jack had gone after her and had been captured. Meanwhile I’d been arrested for stealing all those diseases from that other UNIT base, you rescued me, we followed the trail Leah had left and found a teleport. Then after that it’s gone, until we woke up in the infirmary, me with a broken arm half torn off and no feeling in my little finger and a note pinned to the door written by me, saying we’d wiped our memories as something so bad had happened we couldn’t live with it. When we got back to Torchwood, Martha seemed to think you’d been ill. And according to Leah, we were distancing ourselves from each other and I was fainting every two minutes. Eventually we had some sort of argument and delivered her to Torchwood.”

“God, this makes no sense,” Rose muttered.

“I know, but we -”

“Doctor,” a man barked from the doorway, and they both looked up to find Colonel Mace standing there not looking very happy.

“Colonel!” the Doctor exclaimed, jumping to his feet and sticking out his hand with a beaming smile in place.

Mace didn’t shake it. “What are you doing here, Doctor?” he asked defensively.

“Yes, sorry to intrude, but we’re looking for a memory … well, specifically, _our_ memory,” the Doctor said, still holding out his hand to be shaken. “Our memories of being in this hospital two years ago for the last few days have been wiped, and we’d quite like to find any sort of clues that might help reawaken them.”

“You won’t find anything here,” Mace replied immediately.

“That was quick, thanks for checking,” the Doctor said facetiously, still holding out his hand. “Have you got any files on us? Specifically Rose?”

“No, you were ghost cases. Nothing was recorded,” Mace replied abruptly.

“Is there anyone we can talk to?” Rose asked, standing up next to her husband, who had finally dropped his hand. “Was there a doctor that treated me?”

“No records were kept,” Mace repeated.

“I’m sorry Colonel,” the Doctor said seriously, still persisting with his smile. “Clearly you’re still very annoyed at us, but we’re sort of desperate.”

“I can’t help you.”

“Please, Colonel,” Rose butted in, stepping forward and pushing her husband back. “This is really, really important.”

“I told you, I can’t help,” Mace said again, and turned to leave.

“Please wait,” Rose said, and she said it with such desperation and pleading that Mace stopped, turning back. Rose quickly continued, dropping her voice to a quiet murmur. “We really, _really_ need help. The Doctor is … Well, he’s … he’s dyin’. We need this memory to make everythin’ okay. I know he stole all those diseases and destroyed them but that’s just him. He’s an idiot. Please, if there’s anythin’ you can do … I would owe you so much. Please.”

Mace’s eyes flickered to the Doctor, who was staring at the floor with his hands in his pockets. Mace then looked back at Rose, and sighed reluctantly.

“As I said, there are no records,” he repeated, and Rose’s hopeful expression fell. “And finding the doctor that treated any ailment that you had would be impossible - we have over ten thousand medical staff that rotate between international sites. However … If any notes were made and not destroyed, they would have been automatically delivered to the London HQ to be archived. I would suggest you continue your search there.”

“Thank you,” Rose said sincerely.

“You’re welcome,” Mace gruffed, and left.

“London, then,” Rose said, slipping her hand in the Doctor’s.

He gazed at her, before impulsively leaning forward to kiss her. 

“London,” he confirmed, pulling out the wad of cash from his pocket. “Thanks Ianto.”

* * *

It was 8:00pm before they got to the London HQ, only to find it was locked up and shut down at the gates. 

“Closed!” Rose realised, checking the time on her phone. “I didn’t know military bases had openin’ times.”

“I doubt they do, but it’ll be night personnel. We’ll just come back tomorrow,” the Doctor said. “Let’s find somewhere to sleep.”

“I’ll just call Jack,” Rose said, scrolling through her contacts until she found him and rang. He picked up within two rings. “Hi, Jack … Yeah we’re fine, um, look, we’ve had to go to London HQ but it’s all shut down, are you lot okay with the kids for the night if we stay here overnight? … Okay, thank you. How are they? … Oh my god, what!?”

The Doctor’s eyes shot open. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Brax has chickenpox!” Rose told him, grinning.

The Doctor snorted with laughter.

“Apparently he looks like a malamorph,” Rose told him, and he laughed even harder before she turned her attention back to the phone. “Yeah, we’ll find a hotel … Thanks, Jack … See you tomorrow.”

She hung up, and the Doctor finally managed to get his amusement under control. “Kids are fine, Brax has chickenpox, that’s about it. What’s a malamorph?”

He continued to grin. “Creatures that are permanently covered in pussy spots. Ugliest known species in the universe. They hold beauty contests every year and no one ever wins.”

Rose giggled but looked appalled at the same time. “Bloody hell, that’s so mean.”

He just beamed. “Best go find a hotel then, eh?”

* * *

The Doctor got her some fish and chips and they found a Premier Inn quite close. They booked in and went straight to their room. They watched TV for a little while, cringing at the Eurovision Song Contest whilst laying on the bed together. When the clock hit 10pm, Rose could see the Doctor was exhausted and insisted they went to bed. 

Now he was throwing up again as Rose sat on their bed, curled into the foetal position, remaining perfectly still as her husband and father of her children relentlessly vomited into the toilet, the door closed.

Although she didn’t know for sure that’s what he was doing, the sounds painted an accurate enough picture for her to imagine. Every night since he’d got back from Volag-Noc. She could almost see him, leant on the toilet utterly exhausted, his face red, him panting from the sheer exertion of what he was going through. Every tiny grunt was breaking her heart a little more with every progressive sound.

He was ill. Terminally ill. He’d only been diagnosed a few days ago, and even now she almost believed it wasn’t true. The scans were corrupted. Brax had read them wrong. A million reasons why everyone else was wrong and the Doctor was in fact perfectly fine. 

But he wasn’t. She knew that. It was happening right in front of her ears and her eyes. He was paling a little more with every day, getting a little bit more tired as they began to approach his scheduled death day. It was such a little decline at the moment that no one else had noticed, but she could see it.

And it was her fault. Her selfish fault.

He could regenerate right now. Regenerate, recover, and he wouldn’t need to go through this every single night. And it was only going to get worse. Brax had described it well enough.

_“He'll slowly start to lose his neural and motor functions, his internal organs will start to die, his muscles will start to waste and then he'll only have enough energy to breathe. He has to regenerate then, template or not, or he never will.”_

But he wouldn’t regenerate now, would he? Because his face would change. They were finding this memory, this elusive memory for the sole reason that she could keep him as he was with the same face.

Her selfish, selfish fault.

Finally the toilet flushed and the Doctor emerged, spraying himself with the bathroom air freshener on the way out. His eyes were watering - the clear strain of what he'd just gone through - before he raised a genuine smile at her and hooked a finger in his tie, pulling it off in one swift movement. She just watched him as he next pulled off his shirt and trousers until he was down to his boxers. He then collapsed into bed next to her, and then frowned.

"I've forgotten something haven't I?" he said, staring at the ceiling.

"Yep," she muttered, still not having moved.

He looked at her, just thinking for a moment until he pulled a face as he realised what that something was. He then reached down to his coat pocket, rummaged around and brought out a pack of pills and a needle gun. She knew what each of them did. The injection was to replace all the nutrients he’d lost whilst throwing up, and the pills were for the pain. 

He popped the pill, and shot himself in the neck with the needle gun. He then put it all neatly back in his coat pocket. 

He then looked at her. She was still staring at him. 

"Please smile," he said seriously. 

"… How?" she replied in a croak. 

"It's easy, pull your cheek muscles in an upwards motion," he joked, doing exactly that. She couldn't help but giggle at his stupid expression. "There. Now get into bed, I'm cold."

She did so, almost robotically. She could barely bring herself to get close to him now. She was getting too scared to touch him, for fear of hurting him in case it raised his blood pressure.

He watched her for a moment, before sighing quietly and sliding over to her.

"Rose," he began softly. "We'll find the memory."

She still didn't move. "How can you be that sure?"

“Day three and we're already halfway there. We know our erased memory happened in the Manchester UNIT hospital February 2010. We can’t physically go there because that will really send our brains into a broken spin, but we know exactly when it happened.”

“But we went there today and they don't know.”

"We tried Manchester, we failed. Now we try London."

“What if they don't know?"

"They will."

“But what if they don't?” she persisted.

He sighed. “Rose, I promise we'll find this memory. Just be positive.”

“You throw up every night and spray yourself with air freshener so you won't smell of sick. How can I be positive?” she pointed out, a little more than frustrated.

"I'm sorry, I don't have all the answers,” he replied gently. “We'll see what London Unit HQ has for us. If they don't know, then you can be annoyed. And air freshener makes me smell lovely.”

Again, she couldn't resist a giggle. He smiled at that.

“Go to sleep,” he said softly. “We’ll sort this tomorrow. I promise.”

She sighed, switching off the light and sliding down under the covers, turning away from him and curling into herself. He shuffled nearer to her, wrapping an arm around her.

“It’s okay to touch me,” he said seriously in her ear. “My blood pressure won’t go through the roof, I promise.”

She looked back at him, his face even paler in the moonlight streaming through the window, the busy London streets below now only dim murmurs as she gazed into his eyes.

“Sorry,” was all she found she could say.

“What for?” he asked, frowning.

“This is my fault. You could regenerate right now and you wouldn’t need to go through this. It’s just … This is all my fault.”

“No, it’s not. We both want this. Besides, it’s not just you. I quite like this face. I mean, look at me,” he said, grinning and pointing at his face.

She sighed, but couldn’t help laughing again. So she turned over, pressed her face to his cheek and wrapped both her arms around him. “How’s the blood pressure?”

“Fine, stop worrying,” he insisted. “Now go to sleep.”

* * *

_“Don't move.”_

_The voice was raw and grating with a tone of voice that implied that the Doctor was already going to obey it. He wanted to resist it, but for some reason his entire body was paralysed – just as the voice commanded…_

_“Are you scared?” the voice asked, almost mockingly._

_He swallowed, biting back the truth... “No,” he forced out._

_“Yes, you are.”_

_“Leave me alone.”_

_“I'm afraid it's too late for that. You’re now insane.”_

_“I'm fine.”_

_“The terrible thing is, I think you believe that.”_

_“I'm not there anymore,” the Doctor grated, starting to get angry now. “I'm home. I'm safe. I'm with my family. Any degree of sanity I had before is still very much intact.”_

_“... So why do you still feel cold?”_

* * *

The Doctor jolted awake, taking in a sharp gasp of breath as his eyes snapped open, fixed unblinkingly at the ceiling above him.

He’d fallen asleep. How could he have let himself fall asleep?

He shivered, quickly securing his hold on Rose. She was still sound asleep, and it was still dark outside.

No more sleeping.

So he stayed there, wide awake, and waited patiently for the morning.


	3. 19th May 2013 - 11:24:01

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose arrive at London’s UNIT HQ where the Doctor pulls a favour from an old friend. Rose meets Shareen, and realises how far away she is from her old life.

The Doctor and Rose arrived at UNIT, and were immediately greeted by a parade of soldiers waving their guns around in their faces. After a small altercation they were subjected to a borderline intimate examination for any weapons before they were marched to a control room where an important-looking man with lots of stripes on his shoulders stood, gazing at them with narrowed eyes.

“Doctor,” he acknowledged.

“Was the weapons search really necessary?” the Doctor asked seriously, pulling his arm away from the overeager young UNIT soldier who was holding it tightly in restraint.

The important man didn’t answer that. “What are you doing here?”

“No small talk?”

“What are you doing here?” the important man repeated, just as calmly.

“If it’s not too much trouble we’d like to take a look at your archive, specifically February and March in 2010 from your Manchester hosp-”

“You won’t find anything here,” the important man interrupted tersely.

The Doctor sighed, glancing at Rose before staring at the man. “Did I really annoy you  _ that  _ much?”

“We are fully within our rights to put you on trial, Doctor, I would advise you not to forget that.”

“Are you threatening us?”Rose asked seriously, edging a little closer to her husband.

“I suggest you leave immediately.”

“We just want to look at a little section in the archive, that’s all,” Rose insisted.

The important-looking man gestured at his soldiers, and suddenly the Doctor and Rose felt guns in their backs.

“Wow, that escalated quickly,” the Doctor muttered, sticking his hands in the air. He looked at Rose, and saw she had got the very same treatment. “Hey, I stole those diseases, not Rose, so get your guns out of her path, please.”

“I’m afraid we don’t accept orders from you,” the important man snapped. “Grey, Jones, please escort our visitors from the premises.”

“Hooold on,” the Doctor said quickly, but found the gun was being shoved into his back as an unspoken order to move. He decided to ignore it. “This is insane. I’m not your enemy.”

“But you are fast becoming one,” was all the important man replied.

“All I did was destroy some highly dangerous diseases,” the Doctor protested. “Which, if even one molecule escaped into the public would wipe out most of the planet …”

“We have been tolerant of you and your antics for a very long time, Doctor, and no matter what your motivations were it was still a reckless, illegal and intolerable act that showed us absolutely no respect. By rights you should have been detained two years ago. I highly advise you and your wife to leave Unit presently. And if you will insist on showing your face here again, then God help you there will be nothing anyone can do to save you.”

“Colonel, what is this commotion?” a man suddenly asked from the doorway in a voice the Doctor recognised.

“Brigadier?” he asked in astonishment, his arms still aloft.

The Brigadier looked at him, but clearly didn’t recognise him, so looked back at the Colonel. “Colonel, what …”

“It’s me, the Doctor!” the Doctor interrupted, beaming from ear to ear.

This caught the Brigadier’s attention, and once more he looked back at the strange, skinny, big-haired man grinning away in front of him. “... Doctor?”

“I’ve regenerated, but it’s me!” the Doctor said happily. “How are you, big fella?”

“Doctor, what the blazes are you doing now?” the Brigadier asked seriously, looking at all the soldiers currently pointing their weapons at his head.

“The Doctor was caught stealing samples from the disease bank from the Birmingham laboratory two years ago, sir,” the Colonel replied immediately, snapping a salute. “I was just about to have him escorted off of the premises.”

“Perhaps this is a little hasty, Colonel. I was not informed of the Doctor’s arrival,” the Brigadier replied immediately.

The Colonel clearly winced a little. “I thought it best to deal with the situation and not bother you, sir.”

“You thought wrongly, Colonel,” the Brigadier shot back. “From here on in the Doctor and his companion will be treated with the respect you would ordinarily give an important guest.”

“Sir, I must protest …”

“You must not. From now, I will take full responsibility for the Doctor and his companion and consequently any actions they undertake.”

The Colonel snapped another salute. “Sir.”

The Brigadier turned to the Doctor and Rose. “Shall we walk?” he asked and led them out of the door, remaining silent until they were a good distance from the over-zealous Colonel. “You’ll have to forgive him, newly promoted,” the Brigadier told them before his eyes drifted to Rose. “Good to meet you, madam,” he said, shaking hands. “May I assume you to be the Doctor’s companion?”

“In all senses of the word, yeah,” Rose replied, smiling.

“What body are you on now, Doctor?” the Brigadier asked.

“Tenth,” the Doctor replied, noticing the Colonel coming out of the room and looking at him.

“You do churn through them, don’t you?”

“Actually that’s why we’re here.”

“Oh?”

“Anyone fancy a cup of tea?” the Doctor enquired, staring pointedly at the Colonel who quickly turned and walked in the other direction.

The Brigadier took the hint and led them back to his office.

* * *

Once the Doctor and Rose had finished their story, the Brigadier was looking very sombre indeed.

“We must find you a way to get into the archive,” he mused.

“Is that difficult?” Rose wondered.

“I'm afraid breaking into a Unit laboratory and stealing copious amounts of highly dangerous substances for any intention is not forgotten quickly. You are now untrusted, Doctor.”

The Doctor frowned. “I'm no longer an ally of Unit?”

“I’m afraid not. Even I cannot erase the black mark from your record, and coming directly to Unit HQ was not the smartest move. In the eyes of Unit there is a very thin line between alien enemies and alien friends and you are now beyond that line. It’s a true wonder you’re not in the stockade. Your only saving grace is on the word of Harry and I, and your infamous reputation amongst the Unit members.”

“Harry?” the Doctor repeated. “Is he well?”

“Yes, he is currently working with the UN overseas. I will let him know you dropped by.”

The Doctor nodded, smiling. “But is it possible to get into the archives?”

“Perhaps. I am needed up country today, I will speak to the Commander on your behalf and put forward a case for you. Perhaps you could return, shall we say, tomorrow?”

The Doctor and Rose simultaneously nodded. “That's fine,” the Doctor replied.

“I do not foresee any problems,” the Brigadier continued. “But I must be off. See you tomorrow, Doctor. And I would recommend you stay off the premises until then.”

The Doctor nodded, standing up. “Thank you so much Brigadier,” he said, shaking the military man’s hand. “It’s been good to see you again.”

“Godspeed, my friend.”

* * *

“So when did you meet him?” Rose wondered as they made it out of the UNIT base five minutes later.

“Err …” The Doctor  _ really  _ had to think about that for a moment. “Second body, then after I had a body confiscated by the Time Lords and I was exiled to Earth without the use of my Tardis I started working for Unit. About the time I met Sarah Jane, I think.”

“Who’s Harry?”

“Medical officer for Unit, he was a companion for a while.”

“Oh. With all your history I can’t believe Unit would just ditch you like this,” Rose said seriously. “You’ve done loads for them, and Earth.”

The Doctor shrugged. “Let’s just get what we need and get out.”

Rose sighed, pulling out her phone. “Better call Jack again,” she said, pressed the call button and held it to her ear.

He picked up within two rings.

_ “Rose? Everything okay?”  _ he asked.

“Fine, Jack. Look, we’re probably gonna be able to get into the archive, but we can’t get in till tomorrow.”

_ “Spending another night there?” _

“I think we’re gonna have to.”

_ “That’s fine, don’t worry about us.” _

“How’s everyone doing?”

_ “Leah’s starting to clear up, Brax’s starting to throw up, and Alex and Kiana are fine. Only thing is Alex is getting a bit uptight.” _

“Hold on,” Rose said, looking at the Doctor. “Alex is getting uptight. You know he doesn’t like us bein’ away.”

“You could go back if you like, I’ll stick here, check the archive and head back later,” the Doctor suggested.

Rose bit her lip, musing. “... No. I’ll stay here. But we’ve gotta go back tomorrow.”

The Doctor nodded.

“Jack, we’re gonna stay for tonight, but we’ll definitely be back tomorrow,” she said down the phone.

_ “Okay, no problem. Have you got enough money?” _

“Yeah.”

_ “Just call me if you get low, I’ll arrange some more.” _

“Okay, thanks. Give Alex a kiss from us.”

_ “Will do. Good luck, bye.” _

“Thanks, bye,” she said, and hung up.

“Right, how do we kill an afternoon?” the Doctor wondered, hands in pockets.

“Sightseein’,” Rose decided. “And can we … go back to the old flat?”

“Why?”

“I just haven’t seen it since … you know. Canary Wharf.”

The Doctor nodded. “Okay, Powell Estate it is. Then we’ll get lunch. I could really do with a Pret a Manger.”

Rose grinned. “Okay. To the Tube. Wait. Have you ever actually  _ been  _ on the Tube?”

The Doctor frowned, thinking. “Can’t remember using it,” he eventually said. “At least, not to actually get around. I chased Hingrad, an alien master of disguise through the underground. And the Great Intelligence used it as a base. And the Zarbi, and the Animus … And I used a station there to get to you when the Water Hive were running amok …”

“Okay, so you never actually got out an Oyster card, stepped through a gate, boarded a sweaty, smelly, hot train and been told to mind the gap?”

“Err … No.”

“Then Doctor, I’m gonna teach you somethin’ new,” she said, beaming from ear to ear. “By the end of today you’ll know all about the world of commutin’.”

* * *

They arrived at the Powell Estate, and it hadn’t changed in the slightest.

The Doctor followed her dutifully until she stopped in the centre, gazing up at where her and her Mum lived for those nineteen years. So much had happened since then. She had become a time traveller and saviour of worlds; she had lived in a parallel universe; she was now married to a 1000-year-old alien that had the ability to change his body; she had beautiful half-alien children; she was an associate of a top secret alien investigation organisation headed by a good-looking immortal man from the 51st century; and she had the best group of friends she could ever hope to have. 

Standing on that balcony looking out across the city at thirteen years of age, she’d thought about what her life would be like in the years to come. She didn’t imagine anything like this. How could she? It was impossible. An impossible, brilliant life.

“Thinking hard?” the Doctor suddenly asked, cutting through her thoughts. 

She looked at him, smiling. “Just thinkin’ how insanely brilliant my life is.”

“Yeah, I often have that effect,” the Doctor replied, grinning. 

She dug an elbow into his ribs.

“What?” he asked innocently, still grinning.

“I wonder who lives there now?” Rose pondered.

“Yvonne and Ray, lovely elderly couple, invited me in for tea and cake,” the Doctor responded immediately.

Rose laughed. “God, it’s so weird. Seems like another lifetime.”

“Because it was,” the Doctor replied.

She pointed to an area on the ground. “That’s where I fell over and grazed my knee when I was eight. I cried so much Mum had to buy ten packs of tissues.”

The Doctor just smiled at that.

She pointed to a low wall running close to them. “Me and Keisha used to hang out there after school. There was this really hot guy that always took that route but he never noticed us.”

“Yeah?”

“And that’s where Old Scary used to sleep,” she continued, pointing under an arch. “Remember him? He was the homeless guy that used to go around yellin’ old poems and pushin’ this shoppin’ trolley full of junk. Me and Shareen used to dare each other to go up to him and say somethin’ but neither of us could get close.”

“Looks gone now,” the Doctor noted.

“Yeah. I hope he got help.” There was a brief pause as Rose thought some more, before finally looking at the Doctor. “Sorry, I’m goin’ on, aren’t I?”

“Not at all,” the Doctor insisted.

She hugged him tightly. “God, I hope the archive has somethin’ for us.”

“It will,” the Doctor insisted, and glanced at the shop. “Want a drink?”

She pulled back from him and nodded. “Get whatever, I’ll be out here.”

“Okay,” he replied, and disappeared into Londis as Rose sank back into her thoughts.

“Rose!”

Rose jumped in surprise at the voice, spinning around on the spot. “Shareen?” she realised.

The bleach-blonde with far too much make-up and fake tan smiled. “Long time no see, girl!”

“Yeah ...” Rose said, slightly stunned. “... How are you?”

“All right y’know. What the ‘ell ‘appened to you, girl? After that robot delete thing you got on the list of the dead, I swear, I looked you up on Google!”

“I’ve … been travelling,” Rose muttered.

“Where? ‘Ow’d  _ you  _ get the dosh?”

“I met someone.”

Shareen grabbed her hand and held it up to Rose’s own face. Her wedding ring seemed unusually shiny today. “No kiddin’, girl! Who’s the lucky guy?”

“He’s just in the shop. His name’s … John.”

“What’s he look like? Is he fit?”

“Um, yeah, pretty fit.”

“What’s ‘is job?”

“He’s a doctor.”

“Bloody hell, you’ve pulled. Look, me and the girls are goin’ to a party tonight, gonna be big, you want in?”

Rose’s eyes shot open in partial terror. “Actually, we’re a bit busy…”

“Oh, come on,” Shareen begged. “Don’t let me down! Everyone’s gonna be there!”

“But …”

“See you at eight then, usual place, and bring your hunk too! Gotta go, late for work, bye!” she reeled off in about three seconds flat, and charged off across the estate.

“But …” Rose tried again, but she was already gone. “Oh God.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, back from the shop holding two Magnum ice creams and handing her one. “Who was that?”

Rose pulled a face, unwrapping her Magnum. “That was Shareen.”

He considered her, biting his Magnum gently and sucking on the chocolate. “... And that’s bad?”

“No … well, yes, but … look, we’ve been invited to a party tonight.”

“And you don’t want to?”

Rose sighed, taking a bit of her Magnum. “Not really, but I have to now.”

“You can go if you want, I’ll stick at the hotel,” he suggested, taking another bite of chocolate.

“You’re comin’.”

The Doctor nearly choked on his chocolate. “I’m what?”

She grinned at his expression. “You’re invited too. Plus I’m gonna need the company, Shareen loses it after two pints.”

The Doctor sighed, sucking on the last of his chocolate and swallowing. “Do we have to?” he moaned.

She grinned a little more at his expression. “Look, we’ll just hang around for a couple of hours, smile loads and then leave, yeah?”

The Doctor sighed again, this time with far more breath and prolongation. “Okay …”

* * *

“Don’t be weird.”

The Doctor looked at his wife as they stood in line outside the club, frowning.

“Weird?” he repeated.

“You know, start doing chemistry with alcohol and like when you told that woman the types of radiation that would make her breast implants explode.”

“I didn't do that,” he replied quickly. Too quickly.

Rose ignored him. “And you're John, okay? You're an emergency doctor.”

“Why?” he asked seriously.

“I want this easy.”

The Doctor shrugged. “Fair enough,” he said.

* * *

“So what d’ya do, John?” Shareen asked him at precisely 8:26pm, already beginning to slur her words.

“I work at a hospital in Cardiff,” the Doctor replied, glancing at Rose.

“Doin’ what?”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “What a doctor generally does?”

“So what are you doin’?” Rose interrupted quickly before Shareen had the time to process that as an insult.

“Still at the shop!” Shareen replied, taking another swig of rum and coke. “Oh my God, Rose, you won’t believe, there was this guy who came in and looked exactly like Johnny Depp I couldn't breathe!”

Rose offered a smile. “How d’you know it wasn't him?”

Shareen gaped at her mere suggestion. “Oh my god, it  _ was,  _ weren’t it!!! … Except he had ginger hair which was weird and he was well fat.”

“... So it wasn't him,” Rose surmised.

“Um ... no,” Shareen muttered.

“What would he be doin’ in Claire's Accessories anyway?” Rose pointed out.

“... Yeah,” Shareen finished flatly.

An uncomfortable silence took hold. The Doctor looked at Rose, then at Shareen, then got to his feet. 

“I’ll go phone Jack,” he said, digging out his phone. Rose nodded at him before he rapidly made his way out of the door of the club.

Rose looked back at Shareen, but the woman’s face had suddenly turned. “So that’s your hunk, he's gotta be summat to make ya just up and leave.”

Rose had to double-take, there seemed to be a lot of malice injected in her tone. “I didn't, things just ... escalated.”

“I'll bet,” Shareen spat, and leant in. “Not even a text. Just left us all thinkin’ you were dead, like that year ya just disappeared with that other guy! I thought we were fuckin’ friends! What the ‘ell ‘appened to ya?” 

Rose stared at her. “I’m sorry, I was busy …” she said, but the words were sounding increasingly more pathetic even to her ears.

“Busy fuckin’ your new boyfriend!”

Rose couldn’t find any other words to say. “I'm sorry.”

“Now you’ve got kids, huh?” Shareen spat, upping her attack. “Maybe they'll grow up and ditch their friends too!!”

“Really, I'm sorry,” Rose said honestly.

“Though with your face they'll be so ugly they won't even have friends!”

Suddenly Rose stopped being remorseful, and instead stared in disbelief at her now ex-best friend sitting in front of her. “What did you say?”

“Ug! Ly!” Shareen yelled out.

Rose sighed, brushing back her hair. “You're so childish.”

“Who’s childish!?”

“You. Look at you, still out gettin’ pissed, sleepin’ with the first guy that smiles at you, a shop assistant in a crap job, gettin’ your clothes washed by mum, borrowing dad’s card without him knowin’.”

Shareen stood up, hands on the table staring down at Rose. “Look who’s on the fuckin’ ‘igh ‘orse!!”

“I only need a donkey to look down on you.”

“You fuckin’ cow!”

“Grow up, Shareen.”

Shareen drew back her hand, and slapped her across the face. The entire club quite abruptly stopped talking and looked at them as Rose stared at Shareen in complete disbelief.

Without a word, she got up and ran to the door to find the Doctor as the club began talking again, the music pumping away. But before she could get there a man stepped in front of her path, and she ended up running into him.

“Sorry,” she stumbled out with her eyes fixed to the ground, trying to go around, but the man grabbed her arms. Rose looked up, confused. “Hey, what are you …”

She froze.

“Hey Rosie, long time no see,” the man hummed into her ear, his five teeth stained yellow and black as he looked down at her in absolute delight.

Instantly Rose was frozen completely to the spot, her heart instantaneously hammering in her chest, trying to break through her ribs with every beat. Her eyes widened, her mouth dried, and complete and utter terror set in.

“Surprised to see me?” he asked, persisting with his horrible grin.

She didn't answer. She couldn't. Absolutely no plan of action came to her head. A list of potential actions were fluttering fleetingly just beyond her head, but she couldn't manage to pin one down.

There was only one word that came to her head, one word that usually sorted everything. So she took a breath, and forced her mouth to correctly pronounce the right syllables …

“DOC-”

Jimmy Stone’s dirty hand clamped over her mouth, stopping her in mid yell.

“Let’s go someplace a little fuckin’ quieter, hmm?” 


	4. 19th May 2013 - 20:31:11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is confronted by Jimmy Stone.

After prolonging his conversation with Jack as much as possible, when the Doctor got back into the club, he couldn’t see Rose anywhere. He went to where he’d left Shareen and Rose, but it was taken up with other people.

It took a few minutes of scouring the club to find Shareen, leant against the bar snogging some random man. He went up and tapped her on the shoulder.

She unstuck herself from the man, and looked at him with contempt. “What the ‘ell do  _ you  _ want!?” she yelled over the music.

“Sorry to interrupt, where’s Rose?” he shouted.

“Called one of her oldest friends, didn’t I?” Shareen said, beaming away. “Jimmy Stone’s got her. Let’s see ‘ow Little Miss Mature deals with that!”

She recommenced snogging the man as the Doctor immediately started panicking.

“She’s with Jimmy Stone!? He’s here!?”

She peeled herself off again. “Yeah, you fuckin’ moron!”

He turned and ran back into the main club where the music was still pumping out at the average decibel level of a concorde. He pushed his way through the crowds and scoured frantically for her, just as the lights started strobing.

“Rose!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, but he couldn't even hear himself – just a vibration in his throat. Or was that from the bass? He couldn’t hear her, and she couldn’t hear him. And on top of that, the bond to her was  _ screaming  _ danger.

* * *

Jimmy had taken her to the empty men’s toilets. He dragged her into a cubicle, slammed shut the door and locked it.

_ “Ten _ years cos of you!” he yelled, slamming his fist against the toilet wall. “Ten fuckin' years!”

“Doctor!” she screamed for the Doctor desperately.

He grinned at that, a sickening, toothless grin. “You’re still scared as fuck, aren’t ya?”

She looked at him, trying to steel herself. “I’m not that person anymore, Jimmy.”

“So why can’t ya run?”

She swallowed. Even as she was sitting there, petrified, she was looking around, processing every method of escape she could try, but none of them had a positive success rate. “What d’you want?” she asked shakily.

“You to see my face again, ya fuckin’ bitch. I wanna know that ya suffered like I did. Ya swore ya wouldn’t tell but little motor mouth had to go blab to mummy and then I’m in fuckin’ prison! Did ya cry? Did ya feel fuckin’  _ guilty  _ at  _ all?” _

She wanted her next few words to come out strong, guided and rationally, but instead they came out in a pathetic murmur. “Shut up.”

“Y’know, Rosie, y’know it weren’t even my fuckin’ fault. I just did what ya asked. Ya put me in fuckin’ prison for doing what ya fuckin’  _ asked me to do _ !”

He slammed his hand on the wall again. She couldn’t help the gasp that broke out of her, flinching and closing her eyes.

“I didn’t ask you.”

“What!?” Jimmy yelled, hand at his ear as he leant closer. His breath was horrendous, full of alcohol just as it always had been. “I can’t fuckin’  _ hear ya!?” _

“It’s not my fault,  _ you  _ did that!” she suddenly burst out, in a pitch swerving somewhere between fear and anger.

“Is that what the shrink told ya to say!?” he screamed.

“It’s what happened!”

He suddenly stopped, and smiled the type of smile that didn’t represent any sort of joy. Just pure madness. “Little Rosie grew up! Little ‘ints of a fuckin’ backbone.”

“Go to hell!” she screamed, struggling to breathe. “Doctor!”

“Cry out, c’mon, cry for ya new boyfriend!” he enthused, almost laughing. “He can fuckin’ bring it!”

“You’re half the man he is!” she yelled back. “Doctor!”

“That’s it, keep yellin’,  _ bitch!” _ Jimmy continued, slamming his hand onto the side again. Rose flinched. He grabbed her around the neck, looking at her through narrow, hateful eyes. He squeezed - just a little - enough to make her choke.

“Geroff,” she gasped, trying desperately to peel his fingers off her neck. Eventually he did, and suddenly he had a knife in his hand. He held it straight to her throat. 

Instantly she shut her mouth. The Doctor couldn’t be allowed to find her … In his state Jimmy would kill him. Not now, not like this ...

“Gone a bit fuckin’ quiet, haven’t ya?” Jimmy spat out, grabbing her hair and pulling her head right back. “Scream for him. C’mon.  _ Scream  _ for your boyfriend so I can stab him!”

“No,” she choked out.

_ “Scream!” _ he yelled in her face, bad breath and spittle flying right into her mouth and eyes.

“No!”

He raised his weapon.

* * *

The Doctor burst into the toilets, and immediately he could hear Rose crying out. He ran to the only locked door and hammered his fist onto it. “Jimmy! Let her go!”

“Finally!” a man cried.

“Run, Doctor, it’s a trap, he’s got a …” Rose’s voice was cut off in mid-flow and there were several bangs against the walls of the toilet cubicle, limbs flailing as Rose struggled.

“Come out and face me, Jimmy!” the Doctor demanded.

“Open the door, bitch!” Jimmy yelled, and the lock slid across, the door opening to reveal Jimmy standing there holding Rose in front of him as a shield, a knife to her neck with her face bloody.

“Jimmy, let her go,” the Doctor grated.

“Kneel on the floor, ‘ands behind ya ‘ead,” Jimmy demanded.

“Don’t,” Rose gasped, “Doctor, run …”

Jimmy clamped a hand over her mouth, silencing her. “Do it or she’s dead.”

The Doctor looked between Rose and Jimmy, and obediently dropped to his knees, hands behind his head. “Jimmy, it doesn’t have to be like this …”

Jimmy threw Rose to the ground, purposely with enough force to render her unconscious. He then raised his weapon to the Doctor, but the Time Lord’s blood was already boiling and with it the excruciating, horrendous pain ...

He had to act now.

He was so preoccupied with trying to think of what to do he missed Jimmy pulling back a fist, and the next thing he felt was a slamming sensation right in his face. He flew back, stunned onto the toilet floor.

“Me and Rosie ‘ave a ‘istory, y’know,” the man said lowly, spittle flying over the Doctor's face as he advanced, the blade against the Doctor’s neck and Jimmy’s face inches from his own. “She was totally in love with me. She didn't take much work. I convinced her to drop everythin'; her home, life, job, school, and even her wet boyfriend to move in with me. Then the fun started. Had her mind, body and soul, if you know what I mean. Guess what I did to her after that?”

“I know what you did. You’re Jimmy Stone,” the Doctor replied in a monotone.

“Yes, I fuckin' am. I'm gonna kill you, you prick. I'm gonna kill you and take her and you won't be able to do anythin' about it.”

The Doctor didn't say another word. With lightning-quick movement he jumped to his feet, pounced forward and got his fingers on Jimmy’s temple. Immediately Jimmy dropped to the floor, paralysed.

The Doctor got up, struggling to suppress his emotions as he looked down at Jimmy Stone lying there, helpless on the ground. He simply smoothed down his jacket and straightened up his tie. He stepped over him, rubbing at his rapidly bruised cheek. He forced himself to calm down and get his blood pressure under control, but it was still at an extremely high level. 

“Doctor?” Rose’s voice croaked. He immediately turned around, dropping down next to her.

“It’s all right, we’re fine,” he said, helping her sit up as he quickly checked for any concussion. “How are you feeling?”

Rose ignored the question, just staring at the body lying on the ground. “... Is he…”

“Paralysed,” the Doctor told her.

“Teh fuck … you do?” Jimmy rasped out, only able to move his eyes, which were darting around in alarm.

“Sorry, didn’t Shareen tell you? I’m an alien,” the Doctor told him, kneeling down next to him.

“W ... What!?”

“You know, an alien?” the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow. “Being from another world?”

“No ...”

“Yes.”

“Nutter ...”

“Really?” the Doctor asked. “We'll see.”

“Fuck ... that ... s'pose ... t'mean?” Jimmy slurred out, his eyes wide.

“Work it out,” the Doctor said vaguely, jumping up to full height. “But you’ve made my species very,  _ very  _ angry.”

“Weirdo …”

“Your paralysis should wear off in about five minutes,” the Doctor told him, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and running it down Jimmy. The device bleeped politely.

“Wassat …?”

“This?” the Doctor asked, holding up his sonic. “This is just the device we use to find out if someone is good to be experimented on. Lucky for you, you’re absolutely perfect.”

Jimmy’s eyes clearly filled with panic. “What?”

The Doctor stayed absolutely deadpan, helping Rose to her feet. He said something in a buzzy alien language, pressed a small short range teleportation device in his pocket, and in a whoosh of light he and Rose disappeared, leaving Jimmy lying there paralysed and absolutely terrified.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose ended up in an alleyway next to the club, Rose clinging onto him tightly. The moment they were stabilised the Doctor pulled back and checked her face.

“You okay?” he asked, reaching into his pocket to draw out a small medical kit.

“Oh God,” Rose gasped, suddenly bursting into tears as the shock of what had just happened hit her.

“It’s okay,” the Doctor said quickly, pulling out some wipes and dabbing at the cut on her face. “That man is absolutely nothing. Don’t let him get to you.”

“I love you,” she suddenly said.

“Same back at you,” he replied, grinning at her daftly. 

She couldn’t help but smile at his stupid expression, wiping at her eyes.

“He’s an immature little boy with a lot of resentment for his life. He’s not scary, he’s just pathetic,” the Doctor continued, dabbing at her face again. 

“I know,” she sobbed.

He suddenly stopped, looking at her. “Rose, answer me honestly. Did he do anything to you?”

She quickly shook her head.

“Just say if he did.”

“He didn’t,” she said honestly.

“You’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

She nodded. “He didn’t do anythin’, I promise I’d tell you if he did.”

He gazed at her momentarily, and decided she was telling the truth. “Okay, now I feel a bit better,” he said seriously, pulling back. “It’s only a shallow cut, should be gone in a few weeks. You’re not concussed.”

“What d-do w-we do?” she said shakily.

“Call the police.”

“No,” Rose said immediately. “I don’t wanna do that again.”

“But he’ll be arrested,” the Doctor said.

“I’m not doin’ that again,” she said. “I just wanna go away from him and Shareen and London and everythin’ … I wanna go home.”

“We’ll get on a train to Cardiff, then,” he decided. “Right now.”

“No!” Rose said immediately. “We’ve nearly got to the archive, we can’t just give up now.”

“Forget the archive, you’re far more important than that.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Rose shot back. “We came here for the archive so we’re not leavin’.”

He sighed. “You’re unbelievable, Rose Tyler. Okay. Let’s go back to the hotel.”

She nodded.

* * *

There they were, back in the hotel with the Doctor throwing up in the bathroom again. Rose was clutching her phone in both hands, her thumb hovering over the call button to her mum.

After ten seconds of staring at the phone, she called.

_ “Hello?” _

“Mum.”

_ “‘Ello darlin’, ‘ave you got the cure yet?” _

“Not yet … we’re goin’ to the archive tomorrow.”

_ “Okay, sweetheart. Is somethin’ wrong?” _

Rose couldn’t help but smile at the fact she already seemed to know. “How’d you always know?”

_ “You’re my daughter! Now what’s wrong?” _

“... D’you remember Shareen?”

_ “Of course I do, love.” _

“Well … me and the Doctor had some time to kill so we went back to the estate, and Shareen was there.”

_ “Oh, that sounds nice.” _

Rose ignored that. “She invited us to this party tonight. So we went … Me and Shareen had an argument while the Doctor was phoning Jack, she slapped me so I ran to find him but …”

She stopped, her breath catching in her throat.

_ “What?” _

“Mum …  _ he  _ was there.”

_ “Who?” _

“... Jimmy.”

The line went silent for a moment.  _ “Oh my god.” _

“He … he dragged me into the loo, but the Doctor found us, Jimmy punched him … He had a knife …”

_ “Oh my god! Are you two okay?” _

“We’re fine, we’re okay.”

_ “I ‘ope you called the police!” _

“No, the Doctor paralysed him and we just left him there.”

_ “You should’ve called the police!” _

“I didn’t want to.”

_ “Why not? Put ‘im back in prison!” _

“I’m not doin’ that again, I’m just not,” she said, desperate for her mum to understand.

Jackie sighed.  _ “Okay.” _

“I’m just …” She looked up to see the Doctor standing in the doorway, looking at her sadly. “Mum, I’m scared.”

_ “He don’t know where you are, does ‘e?” _

“No … But … Look. I love you.”

_ “I love you too, sweetheart. When are you comin’ back?” _

“Tomorrow.”

_ “You’d better be, or tell that alien I’m gonna do his nut in.” _

Rose smiled again. “Yeah, I’ll tell him,” she said, looking up at the Doctor, pointing at him, then indicating a stabbing motion with her hand. He mock frowned, dropping down on the bed next to her and pulling off his clothes.

_ “I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart. And don’t think about Jimmy. Stick with the Doctor, he’ll look after you.” _

“I know,” she said quietly. “... Are the kids there?”

_ “They’re asleep, sweetheart. D’you want me to get them?” _

“No, don’t wake them up. Tell all of them we love them and we’ll be back tomorrow.”

_ “Of course. See ya tomorrow.” _

“See ya.”

Rose hung up and looked at her husband who was staring at her. He had a black eye, not too severely though. As she thought about it he reached up to check her head again, a small cut and tiny bruise where she’d hit the floor, before examining the cut on her cheek. Though it would clear up, she knew he still felt guilty at the fact it was even there.

“Tomorrow, then we never have to come back here, yeah?” she surmised.

He nodded, sighing and flopping back down onto the pillows. “Never again,” he confirmed, looking sideways at her. And with his gaze, she suddenly found herself bursting into tears, taking herself by surprise.

“Hey,” the Doctor said quickly, shifting over to wrap his arms around her. 

“S-sorry,” she sobbed, shaking. 

“Don’t apologise,” the Doctor insisted. 

“I d-don’t know why … I’m c-cryin’ …”

“Because you’re in shock,” the Doctor told her informatively. “You’re stressed and upset.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, striving to stop the tears.

“Don’t stop,” the Doctor said gently. “Cry it out. I’m not judging you. And y’know, crying is actually beneficial to your health, because emotional tears contain high levels of adrenocorticotropic, which triggers cortisol in the body, which is what creates stress, and stress can lead to long term effects of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. So crying reduces that in your system. So it’s really quite beneficial to cry.”

She couldn’t help but smile through her tears at the very Doctor-ish response. “Yeah, but … I c-cry a lot.”

“Did you know that on average women cry forty-seven times a year and men only seven? That’s mainly due to the higher levels of estrogen and prolactin in a woman. So if you didn’t cry forty-seven times a year I’d be worried. Plus, you could never beat Donna’s record.”

“What did you d-do to her?” she jested, perking up a bit as she sniffed.

“I have no idea. She cried when I first met her, she cried in Rome, she cried on the Oodsphere … Geez, that woman could cry.”

She giggled, snuggling into him. She then drew back, looking down at his half-naked body. She liked to think she knew every inch of it. His appendectomy scar, and the mark just above it when he’d been stabbed by the Master whilst in captivity at the Shadow Proclamation. Then there were many white scars and other permanent damage from the Shadow Proclamation’s torture. Then there was the cluster of nerves on his shoulder where she could knock him out with one punch, and his easily accessible g-spot between his shoulder blades she’d stumbled on quite by accident. She knew this body inside out. He’d said it himself to her on several occasions - it was  _ her  _ body. It was born when he was with her, as if designed especially for her, and now it would die while it was with her. 

That was why they were fighting so hard to keep that body, so he would regenerate looking exactly as he had before. It just seemed so hard to convince herself of the reasons for that now. Would it really be so bad for him to regenerate into a new body?

“I know my body’s amazing, but you need to take your eyes off it and go to sleep,” the Doctor suddenly said, interrupting her thoughts.

“Sorry.” She smiled and kissed him on the lips, then snuggled under the duvet and draped herself over his chest. The Doctor turned off the light.

“Don’t worry about Jimmy,” he whispered in the darkness. “I’ve got a brilliant plan.”

“You’d better,” she said seriously, adjusting her ear so it was over his beating right heart. 

“Just need to talk to Brax,” he continued. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

But she was already asleep, snoring gently. He rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead, getting himself comfortable before allowing himself to just lie there and wait until morning again.


	5. 20th May 2013 - 19:01:13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor concocts a plan to deal with Jimmy Stone.

“Geez, who did you piss off?” were Jack’s first words to the Doctor as he stepped through the Hub door with a rather obvious black eye. The Doctor didn’t have a chance to reply before Rose came through, and Jack’s eyes widened at the cut down the side of her face.

“Rose!?” he asked in alarm, looking at her, then the Doctor’s black eye, and then back to that cut on her cheek. “What …”

“Jack, please,” the Doctor interrupted, hand in the air. “We’re in dire need of tea and pizza.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jack said, looking back at Ianto who was hovering over his shoulder. “Yan, can you …”

“Already on it, sir,” Ianto said, staring at the Doctor and Rose before drawing out his phone to order pizza.

“C’mon,” Jack said, gesturing them up to his office, but the Doctor was already shaking his head.

“Where are the kids?”

“Tardis,” Jack replied, quickly leading the way there instead.

* * *

Leah was sitting in front of the TV when her parents arrived, kicking her feet against the sofa. The moment she saw them she jumped off and ran to her father, hugging his leg tightly.

“Daddy,” she said happily, looking up at him as Rose crossed to Alex. “What did you do to your face?”

He dropped to her, kissing her and holding her tightly. “Honestly? I got punched in the face by one of your mum’s ex-boyfriends,” he said, and she laughed. He then pulled back and looked at her, grinning. “Hey, no spots!”

“Uncle Brax says I’m okay now,” Leah informed him.

“Yeah … How is Uncle Brax?”

“His spots went last night,” she said. 

“Hold on … I missed him being covered in disgusting pus-filled spots?”

She giggled at his tone of voice. “He looked really funny.”

“I’ll bet,” the Doctor replied, sighing. “Why didn’t you take pictures? I was relying on you.”

“He said not to, else he wouldn’t gimme ice cream.”

“That fiend!” the Doctor jested, and hugged her again. “Ugh, I missed you.”

“Did you find how to fix you?” she suddenly asked quietly over his shoulder.

He sighed, closing his eyes. “No. But we’ll keep trying.”

She drew back, and smiled at him. He couldn’t help but smile in return and kiss her forehead as Rose came back with Alex, who reached out to his dad to be taken. The Doctor obliged.

“Where’s Kiana?” Rose asked, looking at Jack hovering in the doorway.

His confused expression was immediately replaced by a genuine smile. “She’s with … Oh, come look.”

He rushed off out of the doorway. The Doctor and Rose shared a glance, raising eyebrows, before each taking a child to Jack’s destination.

His destination turned out to be the playroom, where Kiana was on the floor with someone the Doctor didn’t immediately recognise sitting next to her, playing. The man was wearing what looked like a highwayman and pirate outfit combined; a white shirt with ruffled collar and cuffs covered in a well-used black leather jacket, with a metal pauldron on his right shoulder and a red cloth tie around the top of his other arm. He had black skinny jeans with some recently-repaired rips in them, his brown hair was mid-length and flat, clinging to his head, and he was currently pulling faces at the little Gallifreyan baby who was laughing away in an adorable squeak.

“You’re a natural,” the Doctor commented.

The man looked up at him, and beamed. “Doctor!” he exclaimed, scooping up Kiana and jumping to his feet. “Nice eye!”

“Zak!” The Doctor spread a warm smile. “When did you get here?”

“Few hours ago,” Jack replied enthusiastically.

“We were in the Sol system, Leya’s having a meeting with the ambassador of Pluto and I didn’t need to be there so I thought I’d drop in,” Zak told them happily, and looked at Rose. “You’re Rose!” he realised.

“Oh, sorry, this is Zak,” the Doctor told his wife, gesturing at the man himself. “You know, my Echo.”

“Nice to meet you,” Rose said as they shook hands. “How’s the Shadow Proclamation thing goin’?”

“Well, we’re called the Neo Proclamation now,” Zak said, still smiling away. “We’ve managed to take jurisdiction over a one light year radius of our Headquarters so far, and we’ve got 500,000 volunteer Peacekeepers.”

“In five days?” the Doctor asked.

“Yeah, we’ve been  _ really  _ busy,” Zak replied, and Jack gave him a supportive slap on the shoulder.

“Told you you’d be flawless, didn’t I?” the immortal enthused.

Zak nodded. “We just got our story out, now every planet’s inviting us to go there and talk with them.”

“Brilliant,” the Doctor said happily.

“So, your turn,” Jack prompted.

The Doctor looked at Rose. “Get everyone together,” he told Jack. “And I still want pizza and tea.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, the Doctor, Rose, Jack, Brax and Jackie with Tony were sitting in the TARDIS living room, waiting on the others to bring the tea and pizza.

“So we went to Manchester and got pointed towards the London archive. We managed to get into the London archive but there was nothing in there, except a document on me when I was admitted, bleeding from my arm. Just some medical notes, nothing that triggered anything in our memories,” the Doctor explained.

Jack stared at him. “Not even a clue?”

The Doctor shook his head.

“So it’s a dead end.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor confirmed. 

“There’s gotta be somethin’,” Jackie insisted. “Isn’t there another archive or somethin’?”

“No.”

“What the hell are we gonna do?” Jack asked seriously.

“I don’t know yet,” the Doctor admitted.

“I know,” Rose suddenly piped up.

Everyone looked at her. “What?” Jackie asked quickly.

“... Just regenerate. Forget about this template thing.”

There was a very long silence.

“Rose,” the Doctor began quietly, taking her hand that was resting on the table. “We’ve talked about this, it’s not just you that wants to keep this body, all right?”

“This is just … it’s stupid,” Rose said, barely able to look him in the eye. “You’re sufferin’ and all this could just stop if you regenerated now.”

“Do you  _ want  _ me to regenerate now?”

“No, but we don’t exactly have a choice, yeah?” Rose replied, still staring at the table.

“We’ve got a few months to play with. It doesn’t have to be now. Something might turn up.”

“But it won’t will it?” Rose answered, getting frustrated now. “Nothing’s gonna turn up, and you’re gonna spend the next few months hurtin’ and turning into this bedridden vegetable cos of me.”

“It’s not because of you.”

“Yeah it is, I’m just this stupid little human that can’t accept somethin’ that’s totally normal for you!”

“You’re not stupid, and I understand why.”

“Never happened before, has it though?” she continued. “Never cared about your old body when you regenerated before, did you?”

“That’s irrelevant …”

“Now here I am cryin’ cos I know one day I’m not gonna see that stupid face again!”

He reached forward and pulled her into a hug, comforting her as she cried.

“It’s not fair,” she sobbed.

“No, it’s not. But we’ll find something. Eh?” he pulled back, gazing into her eyes. “I promise we’ll find something, even if it comes later rather than sooner.”

She didn’t reply to that, just crying.

“For God’s sake,” Jackie suddenly said abruptly. “Couldn’t you just time travel? Back then to see what happened?” 

“No, we’re part of events now,” Brax said quietly.

“Who cares about the bloody laws of space,” Jackie replied rudely.

“We cannot physically get there,” Brax explained patiently. “The timeline would reject us - throw us out of time. If we could, I would have done it already. Besides, even  _ if  _ we could, the shock of seeing it happen would severely damage Thete and Rose’s brains. You know that, Jack. You saw it.”

Jack nodded. “Zak,” was all he said.

Brax nodded. “He was lucky, his brain was fairly new and pliable. Thete and Rose wouldn’t recover. They have to remember it for themselves.”

There was a knock on the door and Zak entered, poking his head around the door. “Can we come in?”

The Doctor nodded as Rose pulled away from him, quickly wiping at her eyes as Martha, Mickey, Gwen and Ianto poured in with pizza and tea. Everyone took a seat and a slice of pizza before the Doctor began.

“We met Jimmy Stone, one of Rose’s less fondly remembered ex-boyfriends,” the Doctor explained. “He attacked us with a knife, hit me, but I managed to paralyze him and we got away.”

“Not him,” Mickey groaned. “I hope you called the police.”

The Doctor glanced at Rose, then back at the group. “Oh no, where would be the fun in that?” he jested, grinning. “I’ve got a better idea. Brax,” he turned to his brother, who was chewing thoughtfully on his slice of pizza. “How d’you fancy a Betty and Barney run?”

Brax slowly matched his grin. “Oh, it's been so long. I would love that.”

“Betty and Barney?” Mickey echoed questioningly.

“Betty and Barney Hill. First ever reported alien abductees,” Martha supplied, also smiling.

“You're gonna abduct him?” Mickey paraphrased.

“We're aliens, it's what we're supposed to do,” the Doctor replied. “Let’s scare him. Give him something else to think about for a while.”

“That’s brilliant,” Mickey said, astonished.

“Zak.” The Doctor turned to him. “Can we borrow your ship?”

“Sure,” he replied.

“I’ll grab some morphic boxes, and Jack, I’ll need to borrow your immortality.”

“No problem,” Jack said. “In what horrific way am I dying?”

“Oh, you won’t be dying,” the Doctor assured him. “Got something a bit better than that in mind …”

* * *

It was 2am in London. Jimmy Stone had just finished his joint, and was lying on his moth-eaten sofa with the TV on mute, blasting drum and bass out of his speakers. He could hear the couple next door having a screaming match about someone cheating on someone, but he was barely paying attention, putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes to drift away ...

Suddenly a light shone, so brightly Jimmy snapped awake immediately, swearing loudly and covering his eyes. There was a sudden, piercing shriek, like a large, heavy, rusty door that drilled right into his brain. He stumbled to his feet, then abruptly dropped to his knees and forced his eyes open towards the window.

The light was so bright it was somehow coming straight through his drawn black curtains, and he crawled forward to reach forward and pull one back …

It was a spaceship. 

“Fuck!” Jimmy shrieked in a high-pitch voice, staring at the craft as it hovered there, strange lights flashing on and off.

“Kzzhaarki,” a voice suddenly said behind him, and he spun around to come face to face with two - very clearly - aliens. They were completely blue, with bulbous heads and big black eyes, their brains exposed, wearing shimmering white robes and strange metal devices around their necks. One raised a hand - in it, a weapon, some sort of silver gun with a weird chamber on it ...

“No!” Jimmy squealed, but the alien had already fired. He was paralysed immediately, dropping to the floor like a rag doll, unable to move anything but his eyes, which flickered around in utter terror…

“Mzzarbla,” one of the aliens said to the other.

“Kzzar tch bala crzz,” the other one replied.

“Trazzz …”

They stepped forward, a hand stretching out, thin, long, spindly fingers towards him …

“Ahh!” Jimmy managed to get out of his mouth, trying desperately to form words. “No, no, no, no, no, no!”

Then suddenly his flat was gone before his eyes and he found himself lying on a table, bright lights above him ...

“No!” he squealed desperately. His mouth was beginning to move more freely now. “Please, please let me go!”

“Subject name; Jimmy Stone. Species, Solian, designated Human from the planet Sol 3.”

Jimmy recognised that voice. He tried desperately to look for him, but he didn’t appear to be anywhere.

“Doctor!” he cried. “You’re fuckin’ there I know it right, if this is some kinda fuckin’ sick joke then fuckin’ stop now or I’ll beat the shit outta you!!!”

Suddenly he appeared right next to Jimmy - but this wasn’t the Doctor he’d punched in a toilet in Camden. This man - no,  _ thing -  _ had blue skin, just like the others, but it was unmistakably him. The shock of brown hair was still on his head, and he still wore that brown pinstripe suit and long tan coat. 

“Subject age; 25 Sol 3 years,” the Doctor alien man continued, apparently not having heard him. “Subject description; tall, brown hair, blue eyes, well-built. Subject physical condition …” The Doctor alien paused for a moment to contemplate that. “... Mildly amusing,” he completed.

“Lemme go!” Jimmy roared.

“Subject identification number; 15344/x3. Switch on translation modes, designated Sol 3, English. Begin experimentation.”

Suddenly four more of those aliens in white robes appeared, wielding horrible-looking needles that Jimmy was very sure they’d be inserting into him.

“Get off me you freaks!” he demanded. He spotted the alien to his left was holding a knife, and was distracted. He forced his body to move through sheer willpower to grab the knife, getting the handle and turning it around back to threaten the surrounding alien group.

“Let me go!” he demanded as the aliens suddenly backed off. Except one, one who was playing the hero. The alien he’d taken the knife from was reaching out to get it back, and came a little too close for Jimmy’s comfort. He instinctively slashed the alien’s wrist, and a hand dropped off onto Jimmy’s chest.

Jimmy screamed again, frozen with absolute fear and panic at the hand now lying spread-eagled on his chest. The alien took some time to realise what he’d done, ending up just staring at its new stump on the end of its arm. For a moment there was silence … until the alien started to  _ laugh. _

Then they were all laughing, and Jimmy didn’t know what to make of it. Soon he realised why, as the alien’s stump suddenly began to morph. It was expanding - growing out into something, something that took the form of …

A hand.

“What the  _ fuck!?”  _ Jimmy shrieked. Then he was crying, transfixed at the sight in front of him of the hand he’d just severed regrowing on the end of the alien’s wrist … “No!” he screamed, hyperventilating. “Are you … are you gonna anal probe me!?” 

The Doctor alien winced. “Oh no, no offence but who’d wanna anal probe you?”

“Why do they always assume we go up that way?” another alien buzzed from Jimmy’s right, one holding some sort of thin metal rod that was shimmering without any apparent cause.

“We like going up the nose,” the Doctor alien continued, smiling a very horrible smile. “Right up into the brain.”

“No … no!” Jimmy squealed again. “Please! No! NO!”

“Empress Rose,” the Doctor alien suddenly said, looking up. Everyone else looked with him, so Jimmy followed their gazes to a lone woman, sitting in a large, decorated throne wearing a crown and robes. 

“Rose!?” Jimmy gasped at the sight.

“Do we have permission to begin the experimentation?” the Doctor alien asked.

“Rose! Please! I’m fuckin’ sorry, all right!” Jimmy burst out, almost in tears of fear. “I’m real fuckin’ sorry, you gotta believe me!!! I’m sorry for what I did! I did my time, I swear imma changed man, just tell ‘em to lemme go! I was fuckin’ crazy back then I swear, I was only a kid and I’ll never do it again, I’ll leave you alone, I’ll go live in fuckin’ India or summat, just  _ please  _ lemme go!”

She stared at him soulessly, until she opened her mouth, Jimmy’s heart racing…

“Continue with the experimentation, Commander Theta Sigma.”

_ “No!”  _ Jimmy screamed.

“Yes, milady,” the Doctor alien said, bowing to her before turning back to Jimmy. 

Suddenly the aliens had taken hold of him again, holding up their weird alien instruments. But Jimmy could barely breathe, and soon he was hyperventilating. The aliens moved towards him, instruments at the ready …

He passed out.

* * *

Jimmy woke up on his sofa, sweating and shaking. He sat up immediately and looked to the nearest clock - it was 7am. He’d lost five hours! Had the aliens had him for five hours?

He thought about that for a moment, before shaking his head. No. It was a dream. He’d fallen asleep, and it was a dream. A really,  _ really  _ messed up dream. That’s all.

He dragged himself upright, but still couldn’t manage to stop shaking. He dragged himself to the bathroom, diving for the sink and running the hot water to splash his face. He finally looked up to the mirror, and saw it.

There was a long, light scar right across his forehead - precise, just like an incision.

He’d been abducted by aliens.

He screamed, running outside and nearly colliding with his neighbour Baz coming the other way.

“Baz!” he gasped.”Oh my fuckin’ God, I got taken by aliens, I swear to god, you gotta ‘elp me!”

“Eh?” Baz asked seriously, utterly stunned.

“My ex-girlfriend, she was their leader and ‘er boyfriend now was being the commander and there were loads of them and one grew back ‘is  _ fuckin’ hand!” _

Baz stared at him. “The fuck you been smokin’?”

“I swear!” Jimmy said, almost pleading. “Look what they did!”

He pointed to his head, but Baz just laughed. 

“Seriously mate, go to bed.”

“Baz!” Jimmy yelled, frustrated.

“Nice chattin’, Jimmy,” Baz said, laughing. “When I get back I want whatever you’re ‘avin.”

He walked off, still laughing.

“Fuck, no, fuck, no, fuck!” Jimmy swore in quick succession, hands on his head. This wasn’t happening. But it all made sense. Rose was their empress and if that Doctor alien was a General, then he’d be her bodyguard … And it was so crazy that nobody would  _ ever  _ believe him ...

“Looking for someone to believe you?”

Jimmy spun around, coming face to face with a strange-looking pale, ginger man. “Who the fuck are you!?”

“I’m someone who believes you,” the man answered simply in a light Welsh accent. “And I can help.”

“What!?”

“That wasn’t real. The Doctor made it seem real. He wanted to scare you. And my God, he did a good job.”

Jimmy frowned. “You takin’ the fuckin’ piss?”

The man didn’t answer that. “He set you up, Jimmy.”

“But he was all blue and those other people were aliens!”

“Simple morphic illusions.”

“But the hand!”

“His best friend is an immortal.”

“You’re talkin’ shit.”

“I’m afraid it’s real. He played the perfect joke on you as revenge for what you did to Rose.”

“But …”

“He loves Rose Tyler, and she wanted to see you cry. So he made it happen.”

Jimmy faltered, frozen. He knew. He just  _ knew  _ the man was telling the truth. “I wanna kill that fuckin’ Doctor!”

“Then you, my friend, have just met the right person.”


	6. 22nd May 2013 - 04:03:47

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah begins to develop a connection with her father. Torchwood has a surprise visit during the night.

It had been a day since they had been to see Jimmy, and they were still congratulating themselves on a job well done. Zak had left to go and pick up Leya after breakfast and they’d waved him off from the top of a tower.

After managing to ground the erratic Time Lord for more than two minutes, Martha had been able to finally sort out a birth plan with the Doctor. She was going to give birth in the TARDIS infirmary. The Doctor himself would be there to deliver, Mickey viewing as the father, and Gwen and Rose there for help and emotional support with no one else. She had gone away with a bounce in her step. 

The Doctor had decided to skip bed for the night, giving Rose some story about needing to work on the TARDIS. She’d believed him. Now he was sat in the console room fully dressed at 4am, feet propped up on the console reading the big dusty book on regeneration.

“Daddy?”

He nearly jumped five foot in the air with the shock, looking down to see Leah standing there with her fists bunched in her nightshirt, gazing up at him with big eyes.

“Oh, hello,” he said, then realised what he was reading might raise some questions from her and quickly shut the book and set it on the side. “What are you doing up?”

“Came to see you.”

“Why?”

“You don’t feel right.”

He gazed at her for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“You feel lonely.”

He forced a small smile, inviting her to jump up onto the chair beside him. He then placed his fingers on her temples and closed his eyes.

“Let me in a second,” he said out loud, and she did. Within seconds he confirmed his theory and drew back. “Wow, you know what’s happening now, don’t you?”

“What?” she asked, opening her eyes again.

“Your bond with me is starting to mature. Soon you’ll be able to feel my presence all day every day, whether you want to or not.”

Leah giggled, taking his hand in both her little ones, playing with his fingers. “Just don’t be lonely, cos I’m here.”

“Oh, I’m not lonely,” the Doctor replied immediately. “How can I be lonely with all of you lot constantly annoying me?” he jested.

“So why do you feel bad?” she persisted.

“Like I said, the bond is just maturing. Emotional cross wiring is all, feelings that aren’t there, that sort of thing,” he lied. “I’m fine, but thanks for worrying about me.”

She giggled again and reached for a hug around his midriff. He gathered her up and hugged her tightly against his chest, kissing her forehead.

“Love you,” he said.

“I love you too.”

“Now, shouldn’t you be in bed?” he asked.

“No,” Leah replied innocently.

He grinned at that and kissed her again. “Go to bed.”

“ _ You _ go to bed,” she batted back.

“Hey,” the Doctor began, raising an eyebrow. “I ordered first. And I’m the adult so what I say goes cos I’m older and more responsible … er.”

She sighed, slipping off of his lap. “G’night.”

“Nighty night,” was what he  _ would  _ have responded with, but there was suddenly the sound of shouting from a distance. The Doctor frowned, got up and stepped out into the Hub, going straight to the monitor that showed the area outside the rolling front door.

There were a crowd of people there, dressed in black.

Before he had a chance to react to that the Hub door suddenly rolled back, and the alarms immediately began in a deafening wail. The crowd burst into the Hub like water breaking a bank, and he was immediately grabbed by two of them.

“Whoa, whoa, can’t we - ah! - talk about this!?” he asked as he was yanked to the side, and something cold yet painfully familiar pressed against his head. It was a gun.

“Don’t move,” a voice grated, but the Doctor wasn’t paying attention to that. He was looking at his little girl, standing there in the middle of the Hub staring in horror …

“No! Leah!” he realised, panicked. He had to get her out of there.

“Daddy!” she squealed.

“Leah, run!”

The little girl turned and ran to the TARDIS, but was intercepted by one of the men. The Doctor’s eyes shot open and he struggled for all he was worth, managing to get free for a split second, running to the girl …

Suddenly something smacked him in the side of the head. Pain blazed through his skull and eye as he let out a yell of pain, and before he had any chance to work anything out he hit the floor, unconscious.

* * *

Leah screamed as her Daddy hit the floor, struggling against the men holding her but to no avail. She watched, transfixed as his unresponsive body was dragged away.

“Uncle Jack!” she screamed desperately, tears streaming down her face. “Uncle Brax!”

“Shut up!” one of the men demanded of her, clamping a big hand over her mouth. She wasn’t deterred. She continued to struggle, waving her arms and legs around, and managed to kick with some force to his stomach. He gasped and dropped her immediately, just as Brax appeared, wide eyed.

She ran to him, seeking protection. But the guns were already pointed at them.

“Get in the corner!” one of the men ordered. 

Brax didn’t have a choice. He grabbed his crying niece and held her tightly, backing up into the corner as instructed.

“Who are you?” he asked, but didn’t get an answer.

“Where is Jack Harkness!?” the man demanded to know.

“If I did know I wouldn’t tell you,” Brax shot back.

“Tell us or the girl dies!”

Brax stared at them. “Go on,” he invited, shielding her completely with his body. “By all means, have a try!”

The man raised his gun, and for a split second Brax prepared himself to have a quick regeneration.

“Brax!?” Jack suddenly shouted from the door of his office.

“Jack, they want you! Run!” Brax said quickly, but there was the sound of a gunshot and Jack hit the floor - a bullet right through his head. Brax quickly made sure Leah couldn’t see him. Three soldiers grabbed Jack and dragged him towards the Hub exit.

“Theta!” Brax yelled, alarmed. “Theta, where are you!?”

“Daddy!” Leah sobbed in his arms.

He couldn’t do anything as the soldiers flooded into the TARDIS where everyone was, helpless.

“Rose!” Brax yelled desperately, knowing full well she couldn’t hear him.

* * *

The Doctor woke up, moaning loudly with an excruciating pain to the right side of his head. But the moan didn’t seem to come out properly, his face somehow tightened - he was gagged, he could work out that much.

“Be quiet!” a voice hissed, and he felt what he worked out to be a foot planting itself into his side. He cried out, the sound somewhat suppressed by his gag. But he obeyed it, staying completely silent as he opened his eyes. At least, his left eye, which was the only one that seemed to be working.

He found himself in a small, metal room - one of Torchwood’s, if the architecture was anything to go by. As well as being gagged he was bound by the hands and feet by duct tape, and above him was a man in black, holding a gun threateningly at him.

“Don’t move,” the man hissed.

Where was Rose? The kids? Jack? Brax? He had absolutely no idea what was going on, though it was clear whatever was happening he needed to get up and get out of here, but he could barely  _ think  _ through the excruciating pain in his head.

“What the hell are you doing!?” a voice yelled. “I said stick a bag over his head! You  _ know  _ how smart he is! If he can see us, it’s too much!”

“Sorry, sir,” the soldier said immediately, knelt to the Doctor and put a black bag over his head. Then, the familiar feeling and tightness of duct tape secured it in place. Great, so now he was going to asphyxiate.

“And who the hell hit him?” the second man continued. “We weren’t meant to touch him.”

“I don’t know, sir.”

The second man sighed. “Have you got rid of his sonic screwdriver?”

“Yessir.”

“Good. Make him more secure.”

The door closed, and the Doctor heard and felt the man move towards him.

* * *

Alex was curled up underneath the living room table, staring at the door. Outside he could hear yelling - there were people inside the TARDIS - dangerous people, people with guns. He could hear his mother screaming his name, but he didn’t respond, squeezing his eyes shut.

Suddenly the door opened. He opened his eyes, but those weren’t familiar feet.

“He’s in here!” a voice said, and Alex immediately clamped his hand over his mouth. But within seconds a man had stooped and there he was, staring black at Alex through a balaclava. 

“Found him!” the man with the balaclava said, and reached forward to grab the boy by his shirt. 

Alex immediately screamed, but the man quickly had a secure hold on him. 

“Got him!” the man said.

“NO!” the little boy suddenly yelled out, trying desperately to worm his way out of the man’s grip but it was too strong. “Da! Ma!”

“Let him go!” a voice suddenly shouted - it was Uncle Ianto, standing there in his crisp suit holding one of Uncle Jack’s guns.

“Kill him,” a man gruffed, and Alex heard a shot. He couldn’t see Ianto, but he wasn’t talking anymore.

“Da!” Alex screamed again. “Ma!”

The man clamped a hand over his mouth, and the group started running back to the Hub.

* * *

Braxiatel knew something was going on as several of them flooded out of the TARDIS, and he could hear someone struggling. The man holding a gun at his niece wasn’t moving - obscuring his vision.

“Who have you taken?” Brax asked quickly. “Tell me what is happening!”

The man didn’t reply. “Be quiet!” he demanded.

“No!” Brax yelled back, putting Leah down and standing up, making sure she was behind his legs. She continued to cling onto him, sobbing for her dad. “What are you doing!? Where is the Doctor!?”

“Stay back!” the man in front of him yelled again, backing away in slight apprehension. 

Brax saw his chance, and took it. He darted forward, wrenching the gun out of the man’s hands. It caused the gun to fire, the bullet flying across the Hub and smashing something in the distance. He finally got the gun, using it as a bludgeon to wave around blindly, trying to hit the man. But the man had somehow found him, grabbed his arm and pulled it, hard. Brax was sent flying over the railing, falling to the metal floor far below with a terrible sound.

* * *

“Ianto!?” Rose screamed, finding the man strewn out on the TARDIS corridor floor bleeding profusely. He didn’t respond, just lying there. It was apparent he’d been shot. “Ianto!”

“Rose!” it was Martha arriving next to her, panicked. “What’s happening!?”

Rose looked up at her, wide-eyed. “Look after Ianto, I’ve gotta find the kids!” she shouted, jumping to her feet and running off to the Hub, screaming their names. 

She burst out of the TARDIS door, and came across a crowd of the men, one holding her daughter at gunpoint with Brax lying on the floor. She ran to Leah instantly, throwing herself around the crying four-year-old.

“Back off!” she snapped at the man with such ferocity he did, glancing back at his group before running off to join them. Then they all filtered out of the Hub door, and suddenly there was silence.

“Oh God,” Rose breathed, kissing her daughter and hugging her tightly.

“Rose?” Mickey cried, emerging from the door of one of the offices. “Rose, are you okay? Where’s Martha?”

“She’s okay, she’s in the TARDIS with Ianto,” Rose said quickly, picking up her daughter in both arms. “He’s been shot, go help her, have you seen the Doctor or Alex?”

“No,” Mickey said quickly, and disappeared into the TARDIS.

“Brax!” Rose cried, running down the steps to the Time Lord strewn out on the floor, just coming to consciousness. He sat up, his eyes wide and cradling his arm.

“Rose, I had Leah, where is …”

“I’ve got her, it’s okay,” Rose said quickly, kissing the girl’s head. “Where’s the Doctor?”

“They hit Daddy,” Leah suddenly burst out, sobbing.

Brax was on his feet immediately. “Go and find Alex, I will find Thete. Go!”

Rose ran off immediately as Gwen came out of the TARDIS to join Brax. 

“We’ve got casualties,” Gwen told him. “Where’s Jack?”

“He was taken,” Brax said quickly, scanning the area. “Help me look for Thete, he has been attacked, he is most likely unconscious ...”

* * *

The Doctor was perfectly awake and lying in the room, barely able to breathe. He could hear the others yelling outside of the door, getting closer.

“Doctor?” It was Gwen.

“Mmm,” he hummed out weakly, barely able to get enough air to say anything now. They hadn’t heard it.

“I can’t find him anywhere,” Brax through the door, panicking.

“Did they take him too?” Gwen asked quickly.

“No, I can feel him here …”

The Doctor groaned. Clearly he was going to have to do this himself. He used his legs as leverage, pushing his body progressively towards the direction he knew the door was. He soon hit it, and - praying it wasn’t a concrete wall - pulled his head back and hit it on the surface three times distinctively. It did nothing to help his already injured head, the pain alone nearly making him black out …

* * *

“Did you hear that?” Gwen asked suddenly, looking at Brax. 

They both looked in the direction it had come from - one of the weapons rooms that no one went into. Immediately Brax pounced forward and opened it, before realising very shortly afterwards he’d nearly KO’d his brother with the door.

“Sorry, Thete,” he said quickly. “Through here!” Brax shouted back out the door. “Gwen, fetch some scissors!”

Brax looked down at his little brother lying there wrapped head to toe in duct tape, a black bag on his head with yet more duct tape around his neck. He knew full well his brother was probably running out of air. Keep up a conversation.

“By Rassilon’s beard, someone  _ really  _ didn’t want to see your face, did they?” he joked. “Although, can you blame them?”

He heard Thete moan under the bag. Probably telling him to shut up.

“Jack has vanished, I think they abducted him,” Brax continued, dropping to his haunches and resting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We have no idea who they were. They just sauntered in and overcame us all. They killed Jack - they must have known he is immortal.”

“Got some!” Gwen said as she came back in. Brax took the scissors from her and took hold of the hem of the bag.

“I will  _ try  _ to avoid your neck,” Brax joked, a few snips later and the bag was pulled off to reveal the side of the Doctor’s head was covered in blood, the right side of his face littered with bruises, and his skin was practically blue.

“Jesus Christ,” Mickey’s voice said, who’d clearly arrived at the doorway.

“Mickey, fetch some oxygen,” Brax ordered. “He’s asphyxiating ... Thete,” he breathed. Seeing his little brother in this state was suddenly not very funny. “Don’t move your head. I’m cutting through the tape on your mouth.”

The Doctor moaned again, his chest rapidly rising and falling in tiny measures, clearly trying to get some air in through his nose but it wasn’t enough.

“Okay, ready,” Brax said, and got a hold of the tape. “I’m sorry Thete, but this is going to hurt. One, two, three ...”

He pulled on the tape, and it came away with a tearing sound, any hair under it being yanked out. The Doctor cried out as his mouth was freed, and then began to desperately take in more air with his chest heaving.

“Rose …” he gasped. “Kids …”

“Rose is fine, she is checking the tots,” Brax told him, starting work on his arms and legs.

The Doctor’s eyes flickered to his brother’s right arm, which was being used to try and put as little pressure on it as possible.

“Arm,” he rasped.

Brax looked at him, then at his own arm. “Yes, it’s been a little bit broken, but we’ll sort that out later,” he said as Mickey returned. Gwen immediately put the mask on the Doctor’s face and he gratefully inhaled the oxygen.

Brax finally got the tape off of his arms, glancing at Gwen as he started work on his legs. “How is his head?”

“I don’t do medical but we’ve got to get him to Martha,” Gwen told him, checking the Doctor’s left eye for dilation. “I think he’s concussed.”

“Rose …” the Doctor gasped again, pulling off his mask weakly.

“Confirmed,” Brax said simply, still cutting through the tape.

Gwen quickly put it back on again. “Doctor, you’ve got a concussion, you need to try and stay focused. Rose is fine, she’s checking on the kids. Brax is going to get the last of the tape off of you then we’ll take you to the medbay. Mickey, can you grab a stretcher?”

Mickey ran off immediately.

“But Rose …” the Doctor groaned, pulling it off again, clearly struggling to get up.

“She’s fine,” Gwen told him patiently, holding it back to his mouth again. “Just relax.”

“We’re untaped,” Brax said, pulling off the last of the tape as Mickey returned, getting out of breath now. “Mickey, could you take his arms?”

Mickey obliged, getting into position. Brax took his legs, wincing as he did so. The Doctor noticed.

“Brax ...” he gasped beneath the mask. “Arm ...”

“Don’t you worry about me, Theta,” Brax replied with a smile, lifting him up with Mickey. Together they placed him down on the stretcher, Gwen obediently following with the oxygen. “Get him to the infirmary,” Brax said quickly, biting his tongue to stop himself crying out at the pain in his arm. “Thete, how are you bearing up?”

The Doctor didn’t reply. He’d passed out.

“Quick,” Brax said, and together he and Mickey ran to the medbay.

* * *

Brax had only been in the infirmary for ten minutes when Rose burst in, her eyes wide and terrified.

“Brax! BRAX!”

Brax looked up from Ianto. “Rose? What-”

“I can’t find Alex!” she said desperately. “He’s gone!”

Brax glanced at Martha, who nodded and took over from him.

“Have you called for him?”

“Of course I did!” she snapped back rudely. “He’s nowhere!”

“Rose, calm down,” Brax said immediately. “He most likely was very scared and hid somewhere. We will use the Tardis to find him.”

“Okay,” Rose said quickly, managing to calm herself down. “Sorry, I…”

“Do not worry yourself with apologies,” Brax replied immediately. “Let’s find him.”

* * *

They ran to the TARDIS console room, Brax immediately commandeering the monitor. He tapped a few buttons, pulled a few levers, and frowned at the result the monitor gave him.

“He’s not on the ship,” Brax muttered.

“Then where is he!?”

Brax swallowed. He knew full well now what had happened to his nephew, but he allowed himself just to hope for a few seconds.

“Check the Hub,” he said shortly, and they both ran out into Torchwood.

“Alex!” Rose cried, cupping her hands to her mouth and running up to Jack’s office. “Alex! It’s Mum! It’s okay, you can come out now!”

“Alex!” Brax yelled, diving in and out of rooms. “Alex!”

There was only silence.

“Oh my God they took him,” Rose realised, trembling with tears in her eyes. 

“I heard them take someone but I couldn’t see them… No wonder. He’s so small,” Brax murmured. 

“We’ve gotta go after ‘em,” Rose said immediately. “We’ve gotta get him back!”

“Rose,” Brax said immediately, turning to her. “We can’t run off without Thete.”

“He can catch up!” 

“It would be foolish to just run into this.”

“Oh for god’s sake, grow a pair!” she yelled back, her tears now rolling down her face. “My baby’s gone!”

“Rose…”

“They could be doin’ anythin’ to him!”

“If they wanted him dead they would have killed him.”

“They tried to kill Ianto!”

“Rose, I understand you are feeling very irate, but…”

“You have  _ no idea  _ how ‘irate’ I am!!!” Rose screamed at him, and stormed into the TARDIS. 

Brax quickly followed, but by the time he got to the Doctor and Rose’s bedroom she was already packing for a substantial trip.

“Rose,” Brax began desperately. “You can’t just leave.”

“What’re you gonna do?” she challenged, throwing a few shirts into her backpack before hauling it over her shoulder, turning to face him.

“Please, Thete wouldn’t want you to go.”

“He’d want me to find our son! And how the hell do you know what he’d want, anyway!? You don’t know  _ anythin’  _ about him, you haven’t seen him for however many hundreds of years!” she snapped back, and pushed right past him, and past Martha hovering in the corridor.

“What …?” Martha began, watching Rose march by.

“Martha, how is Thete?” Brax asked urgently.

“He’s woken up,” Martha replied, glancing nervously at Rose. “He wants to see Rose.”

“Rose, he’s awake!” Brax said quickly, running to catch up with her. “He wants to see you.”

She stopped, looking at Brax.

“Please, before you do anything, just talk to him,” Brax said, lowly and patiently. 

Rose sighed, dropping her bag onto the floor and marching back past him into the infirmary. 

* * *

The sight of the bloody and bruised Doctor made her immediately run forward to him, cupping his cheek as she snapped her head up to Brax. “Why didn’t you  _ tell me  _ this!?”

“I …” Brax began, but realised she was already ignoring him as the Doctor’s eyes flickered open.

“Rose, stop yelling, I have a headache,” he moaned.

“No kiddin’ you stupid idiot,” she said seriously, kissing his forehead. “But those men, Doctor, they took Alex.”

“Yes, me and half of Wales gathered,” he replied, blinking rapidly a few times.

“Stop bloody  _ jokin’!”  _ she screamed, causing everyone to flinch. “Alex is  _ gone!” _

“She wants to leave to find him,” Brax said quickly, stepping forward. “Those people were professionals, Thete.”

“You don’t  _ care!”  _ Rose yelled. “Any of you!”

“That’s unfair, of course we care,” Martha said.

“He’s our  _ baby  _ and he’s  _ gone  _ and nobody  _ bloody  _ cares!”

“Rose,” Braxiatel suddenly said quickly. “Remember, they took Alex  _ and  _ Jack. Wherever Jack is, Alex is too. Jack will take care of him. Those people were fully-equipped and had everything planned down to the last detail - they’re powerful and well-organised and running straight into this is not going to help Jack or Alex.”

“Where are my shoes?” the Doctor suddenly asked vacantly.

Martha quickly moved in. “He’s very concussed,” she told Rose, before looking at the Doctor. “Doctor, you need to rest.”

“But I need to finish my painting,” the Doctor said seriously.

Rose stared at him. The tears were still rolling down her face.

The Doctor smiled briefly, reaching up to wipe a few from her cheek. “Crying again,” he said quietly, before dropping his arm again and spontaneously passing out.

“Oh God,” she muttered, dropping her head into her hands.

“When we know what we are dealing with then we can go and save Jack and Alex,” Brax said quietly, cutting through the atmosphere like a blunt knife. “Do not act with haste.”

She sighed, her shoulders heaving.

“And I swear on Rassilon’s crown that if they have done anything to him then I will respond in kind,” Braxiatel finished softly.

She looked at the unconscious Doctor, and then up at Brax through her fingers, and finally nodded.

“Okay,” she muttered.


	7. 22nd May 2013, 06:56:40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The worldwide fallout from the raid becomes apparent.

The Doctor’s head felt like his brain had been exploded into a million tiny pieces which were currently floating around in his skull in a completely random formation. He’d since regained his sight in his left eye, although a little blurry, and now he was standing in the middle of Torchwood with several stitches in his head trying to comprehend what his wife was talking about.

“We need to scan, or somethin’, or trace them or CCTV or somethin’!” she said at a million miles per hour.

“Yeah,” the Doctor said redundantly, blinking a few times to try and straighten his vision out, but it was doing nothing. “Scan.”

Brax looked at his brother sympathetically. “I think what Thete’s trying to say is yes, we do need to scan, perhaps using Alex and Jack’s biosignatures in a worldwide radius.”

“We have their biosignatures, yeah?” Rose said quickly, looking pleadingly at the Doctor. “We’ve got ‘em?”

The Doctor looked at her, blinking a few times. “Umm … Jack’s, no. Alex, yes. Won’t need… umm … no Jack. Immortal.”

“What?” Rose asked blankly.

“Thete said yes, we’ve got Alex’s but we’ve not got Jack’s, but we won’t need it because he’s immortal and has a rather unique biosignature,” Brax translated before finishing off with, “Thete, go and lie down. I told you not to get up.”

“M’fine,” the Doctor insisted.

“You’re clearly not, go and lie down,” Brax ordered.

“I’m fine!” the Doctor insisted, more pronounced.

“What is 534 times 24?”

The Doctor paused, before looking at Brax with a furrowed brow. “A headache.”

Brax sighed. “Gwen, take him to bed.”

“I can take myself ... Not an idiot,” the Doctor replied, annoyed.

“You could have fooled me,” Brax replied, pushing him in the direction of the TARDIS. Reluctantly the Doctor left, trudging back into the TARDIS.

* * *

The Doctor didn’t go to bed - instead he went to the infirmary, straight to the medicines cupboard. He rooted around for a few silent minutes, hoping and praying …

“Yes,” he chimed quietly so as not to aggravate his throbbing head, pulling out a bottle filled with pink liquid labelled, ‘ **MAGHMAR** ’. He popped the lid, poured a cup full and downed it all in one. He winced, pulling a face, and slowly but surely his headache began to recede, his thoughts becoming a lot clearer.

“Mmm, fff,” he tried out loud, shaping his mouth. “Ahhh. Ooo. Good morning, absolute pleasure to meet you! Spiffing! Dandy! Antidisestablishmentarianism! Roast beef!”

He grinned and put the medicine back, hiding it out of sight. He then jumped to his feet and skipped out the door, and almost tripping over one of Alex’s toys on the floor. 

He stopped dead, all of the happiness immediately evaporating from him. He stooped and picked it up, gazing at it for a long while. It was a stuffed toy dinosaur - a  Aegyptosaurus , to be precise. 

Prior to getting it, the Doctor had noticed Alex was spending a lot of time playing with his Tyrannosaurus Rex toy and wandering around Torchwood trying to find  Myfanwy the Pteranodon , but Myfanwy had always steered clear of him. Alex would get very upset that Myfanwy didn’t want to play with him like she did with Leah. 

So in an effort to try and get him to open up, the Doctor had taken Alex back in time to the dinosaurs to see them for real. It had turned out to be a very good idea. The Doctor had never seen him so emotive. He’d taken a particular liking to the Aegyptosaurus, so the Doctor had called ahead to Jack.

When the Doctor and Alex arrived back at Torchwood, Jack had searched over the entirety of Earth to find a toy Aegyptosaurus, and had it wrapped up and ready for Alex. The boy had been over the moon. He’d refused to put it down for a month.

Now here it was, all alone in a corridor. Alex was gone. Stolen. Stolen from their own home.

Jack would take care of him.

The Doctor sighed, swallowed, and put the toy into his pocket before moving back down the corridor. He passed the nursery where Kiana was sleeping like a baby, and then reached Leah’s room. He rapidly decided to look in.

He found her sitting up on her bed, hugging her toy rabbit.

“Hey,” he said gently, moving forward. “Thought you were asleep. You okay?”

“I’m scared,” she said quietly.

The Doctor sat on the bed next to her. “Don’t be scared.”

“What if they come again, Daddy?”

“They won’t. I promise. I’m going to up Torchwood’s security so we’re completely safe,” he assured her. “Triple deadlock seals.”

“I don’t wanna be taken,” she said, and started to cry.

“You’re not going to be taken, I’m never letting that happen,” the Doctor said quickly, picking her up to sit her on his lap, hugging her tightly. “Not you too. Nothing is ever going to happen to you. Because I’m your daddy, and you know what daddies do?”

“What?”

“We worry,” he said softly. “We worry a  _ lot.  _ You always say I worry, but I worry so you don’t need to worry. Y’know, after you were born, after you’d done the rounds ... I held you in my arms and made a solemn promise to you that you would never have to be scared. Don’t be scared, because I’ll do that for you. Nothing is ever, ever going to take you from me. I promise. Unless you want to run off with a boy, of course.”

“Eww, boys,” she said, giggling a little as she wiped at her eyes.

“Exactly. Keep thinking that way,” he encouraged, grinning.

“Can I help find Alex and Uncle Jack?” she asked, looking up at him with teary eyes.

“Of course you can,” the Doctor said, kissing her again. “Go brush your teeth and I’ll find you some clothes.”

* * *

The Doctor and Leah arrived in Torchwood ten minutes later, the girl still hugging Floppy under one arm with her other hand in her dad’s.

“That was quick,” Brax said seriously, gazing at the Doctor.

“I’m fine,” the Doctor replied. “Let’s find Alex and Jack.”

Brax didn’t look convinced. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

Leah suddenly tugged on the Doctor’s hand, and he looked down to her.

She looked back up at him with wide eyes. “Is Alex okay?” she asked quietly.

The Doctor nodded, dropping to her. “He’s going to be fine. Uncle Jack is going to look after him for us. I just want you to stay near me, okay? Stay with me. Or anyone. Near me, Mum, Uncle Brax - anyone. Don’t go anywhere on your own, okay?”

She nodded.

“Good girl,” he finished, kissing her and hugging her tightly. 

“Doctor,” Mickey suddenly said from his desk. The Doctor straightened up, scooping up his daughter and sitting her on Mickey’s desk as he reached it. “It’s the news.”

The tone in his voice was enough to make everyone gather at Mickey’s desk, where he had the BBC News website up on his computer.

**56 WORLDWIDE ABDUCTIONS - UN TO MAKE A STATEMENT**

“Fifty-six people reported abducted or gone missing at the exact same time,” Mickey said, gesturing to the screen. “And we’re not just talkin’ Wales, this is the whole world.”

The Doctor leant in. “Get me a list of names and locations.”

“No need, it’s here,” Mickey said, clicking onto the BBC News site. “Fifty-six names and places.”

The Doctor took over the mouse, scrolling down through the names. There they were, Alex Tyler and Jack Harkness.

“How can they know them?” Martha asked, frowning.

“Somebody told them well in advance,” the Doctor muttered. “This was a pre-prepared report.”

“But what does that mean?” Rose asked.

“It means whoever took them is  _ extremely  _ well organised,” Brax said quietly.

“They organise fifty-six separate abductions at the exact same moment worldwide and get a comprehensive list of names and locations to the press in time for the morning news?” the Doctor pointed out. “This isn’t organisation, this is plain showing off.”

“Hold on,” Rose said quickly, pointing at a name on the screen.

**Luke Smith, Ealing**

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “Phone Sarah,” he said, and Rose quickly pulled out her phone, dialling for Sarah.

“Sarah,” Rose said almost immediately. “Where’s Luke? … Yeah, we just read it on the news site … They took Jack and Alex too, just stormed right in here …”

“Let me talk to her,” the Doctor said quickly, holding out a hand. Rose quickly handed him the phone. “Sarah, it’s me … No, I don’t, but we’ll find out … I’ll come and pick you up. Don’t go anywhere … Okay, see you in a minute.”

He hung up and gave the phone back to Rose, turning to Torchwood.

“Okay, we need to organise too,” the Doctor began, clasping his hands together. “We need to find out as much about the abductees as possible. Gwen, can you do a police check on them? Biographies, please. Find out if there’s anything interesting.”

“No problem,” she confirmed.

“Mickey, we need to find out who those people were and how much power they have. Dig as much as you can on how that story got on the news,” the Doctor continued.

“Yep,” he confirmed.

“Brax, could you start trying to track Jack and Alex’s biosignatures? Use the Tardis after I’ve got Sarah.”

Brax nodded, still gazing at him.

“Martha, keep by Ianto.”

“Of course,” Martha responded, nodding.

“Rose,” he continued, turning to her. “You’re monitoring the news. Any more developments on the story let everyone know. And if anyone needs any help, lend a hand.”

She nodded. 

The Doctor turned to leave, before suddenly stopping and turning back around again. “Sorry… is everyone okay with me being Jack and facilitating?”

“Yep,” Gwen approved.

“Go ahead,” Brax said, gesturing his hand.

“Working pretty well so far,” Martha added.

“Frankly it’s better,” Mickey said seriously.

“Okay, I’m going to get Sarah, back in a minute,” he said, and jogged to the TARDIS.

“I’m going with him,” Brax said shortly, and rushed off after his brother.

* * *

The Doctor was already programming the TARDIS when Brax got there. The Doctor looked up, saw him, and looked down again.

“Stay here, look after Rose and Leah. Start locking down the Hub,” he ordered, tapping at the console.

Brax ignored him. “Have you taken what I think you’ve taken?”

“You know what I’ve taken,” the Doctor replied shortly, and changed the subject. “Please look after my family.”

“You’ve taken Maghmar.”

“Yes, I have.”

Brax rounded on him immediately, pushing him away from the console. “In the name of Rassilon  _ why  _ would you take Maghmar? Why do you even  _ have  _ Maghmar? Do you  _ know  _ what you’ve done, Theta!?”

“Of course I know what I’ve done!” the Doctor snapped back. “I needed a quick fix and I found it, what’s your problem?”

“Maghmar is black market, it’s illegal, for a very good reason!” Brax yelled in his brother’s face. “And look at the dosage you took!”

He reached up and pulled a stitch out of the Doctor’s head. The Doctor yelped in pain, blocking his brother from doing it again. But the fresh wound was already healing, just like his head had.

“You’re already healing, your bruise has gone!” Brax shouted, jabbing him in the face. There was no longer a bruise under his eye. “You took a whole capful, didn’t you!?”

The Doctor pulled back, glaring fiercely at Braxiatel. “Oh no, Brax!” he began insincerely. “Maybe the dosage will  _ kill me!?” _

Brax fell silent.

The Doctor turned to the console to continue programming.

“... It’s addictive,” Brax said quietly.

“It’s irrelevant,” the Doctor replied shortly.

“I cannot believe you did that. Even if you are already dying, why would you take it? You know what Maghmar does. It’s not just lethal. It’s maddening. It’s decaying.”

“Stop worrying,” the Doctor fobbed off. “I know what I’m doing.”

That made Brax angry. “I don’t think you do!” Brax was shouting again, wanting to shake his brother hard. “You stupid,  _ stupid  _ boy!”

“... You sound exactly like him.”

“What?” Brax asked, wrong-footed.

“Like father.”

Brax stared. “I do not.”

“Yes, you do!” the Doctor shot back. 

There was an awful, long, awkward pause before Brax swallowed, taking a moment to calm himself down before leaning forward and resting his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Forgive me. But Maghmar is dangerous. You know that. Look, just tell me where it is, then I can dispose of it and there is no chance you might take another dose.”

The Doctor sighed, annoyed. “I’m  _ not  _ going to take another dose.”

Brax let go of him, closing his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again. “Thete, you are all I have. I just … I need to look after you. Let me look after you.”

“I’m not a child anymore, Brax.”

“I know, I know that, but you’re still my little brother and this is … This is painful, Theta,” Brax said, his voice beginning to waver. “Don’t think I’m comfortable with this. I wish you could regenerate right now, just so I didn’t have to watch you go through this. But I know that’s not a possibility. So just let me worry a little about you. It is my duty. I am your older brother. And I’m asking you not to take black market drugs.”

“Can you leave now, please?” the Doctor said sharply.

Brax faltered. “I am trying to help, Theta.”

“Well you’re not, so just leave me alone. If you really can’t grasp that I might not take another dose, it’s in the medicine cupboard in the infirmary, at the back.”

“Thank you,” Brax said shortly. “And I did not say you would. Now go and get your friend. I will take care of your family.”

“Bye,” the Doctor grunted, and turned back to the console. Brax gazed at him for a moment, before leaving.

* * *

The TARDIS disappeared the instant Brax stepped out of it. Rose met him immediately, frowning.

“Were you two arguing?” she asked.

Brax couldn’t lie. The shouting had probably been loud enough. “Yes.”

“What about?”

“Oh, nothing important, he’s just being his usual stubborn self,” Brax dismissed. “Right, I need to strengthen our defences. Is there a terminal somewhere?”

“Over there,” Gwen said, gesturing to a computer. Brax left to get on with his assigned job.


	8. 22nd May 2013, 07:03:55

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor retrieves Sarah, and takes charge of Torchwood to try and find the abductees.

The Doctor landed in Ealing at the end of Sarah Jane’s road. For quite a few minutes he just stood at the console, trying to calm himself down. The now far too familiar feeling of fire coursing through his blood was as potent as ever.

Finally he managed to calm himself enough to roll back his shoulders and straighten up, ready to meet Sarah Jane. He grabbed his coat, pulled it on, and stepped out of the TARDIS onto the pavement. Then he was off, striding quickly to Sarah’s house.

He hadn’t even connected his thumb with the doorbell before it flew open and Sarah’s hand shot out, pulling him inside with a yank.

“Whoa, Sarah?” the Doctor asked in alarm as she slammed the door shut and dived to the curtains to peek through. They were drawn completely across.

“What are you  _ doing,  _ you could’ve landed in my back garden!” she snapped, clearly extremely agitated.

“What’s wrong?”

She turned to him. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“The press are hounding all of the people associated with the abductees,” she said quickly, pointing at her TV where BBC News 24 was on.

“So?” the Doctor asked, hands in his pockets.

“They’ve gone by the house five times already this morning,” Sarah said, peeking out through the curtains again. “I don’t think they’ve got a proper address for me.”

“Then let’s get to Torchwood,” the Doctor said. “We’re locking down, it’ll be safe there.”

“Okay,” Sarah said, rushing into the kitchen before emerging with a suitcase. “I’m already packed,” she said, offering a small smile.

“Good,” the Doctor replied, and opened the front door. “Slow, calm steps.”

Sarah nodded. The Doctor took her bag for her as they emerged out of the front door. The world seemed mundane enough, so the Doctor advanced as Sarah quickly locked the door.

Within seconds there was the sound of a van turning onto the street, and Sarah quickly grabbed his coat, pulling him behind the bushes. Seconds later a rickety old van drove past, cameras pointing out of the windows.

“I can’t believe I’m hiding from journalists,” the Doctor said seriously, getting up again as the van disappeared around the corner.

“You’ll thank me later,” Sarah assured him, and jogged off down the road to the TARDIS. He quickly followed, and together they got inside without anyone seeing them. The Doctor commenced programming immediately.

“So what’s your situation?” Sarah asked.

“They stormed in this morning, took Jack and Alex and shot Ianto,” the Doctor said. 

“Took Alex? Oh no.”

“Yeah.”

“And they shot Ianto?”

“He’s okay, he’s in the infirmary, stable,” the Doctor assured her as the time rotor began to pump. “How did they take Luke?”

“We were asleep, I suddenly heard the front door opening, I walked out and there were four men dressed in black with guns,” Sarah told him quietly. “They yelled at me to get in the corner, then I heard Luke crying out. He was dragged away, right in front of me. They stayed there until just before seven. I was just about to call you when you called me.”

“They stayed with you?” the Doctor asked, frowning.

“I don’t think they wanted me to contact anyone,” Sarah said. “They kept talking about keeping any technology away from me.”

The Doctor looked at her, his brow furrowed. “I don’t think they wanted you to contact me.”

“That’s what I thought,” Sarah said, and fell silent, swallowing nervously before speaking again. “... Do you know where they are, Doctor? Luke and the others?”

“No idea, but we’ll find them,” the Doctor answered, just as the console started beeping a frenzy of alerts. The Doctor frowned, looked down at the readout, and then sighed heavily.

“I don’t believe this,” he muttered, pulling out his phone and holding it to his ear. “Rose? Yes, could you tell Braxiatel that it’s lovely he’s got the defences working but I can’t actually get in? … What? … Oh for … Okay, I’ll walk down. Can he at least get the front door open? … Okay, see you in a minute.”

The Doctor hung up, hitting a final button before the TARDIS landed with her customary jolt.

“Stay here, back in a minute, I need to get the TARDIS inside Torchwood, and Braxiatel’s maximised and locked all the defences,” the Doctor said. Sarah nodded, smiling a little at his exasperated expression.

“I’ll be right here,” she replied, taking a seat.

The Doctor stepped out onto the plass, adjusting his coat again. He closed the door behind him, took ten strides, and suddenly was completely amassed by a crowd of microphones and cameras.

“Are you Alex Tyler’s father!?”

“We understand you’re associated with Jack Harkness, can you comment on his disappearance!?”

“Is there anything you’d like to say to the abductors, Mr Tyler!?”

“We understand there was gunfire, was anybody injured!?”

“Where’s your wife, Rose!? Can she comment on the abduction!?”

The Doctor had no idea what to say, and he couldn’t get through. “I …” he paused, trying to think of some words.

Gwen suddenly appeared, diving in front of him. “Mr Tyler is obviously very distraught at the abduction of his one-year-old son, Alex Tyler, and his friend, Jack Harkness. South Wales Police are currently working around the clock to find them. All Mr Tyler asks the abductors is that Alex and Jack are kept safe and returned home soon. Obviously this is a very difficult time for the family and we ask for discretion. Thank you.”

She took the Doctor’s arm and pulled him away, just as the reporters started up again, yelling questions. Gwen quickly led him away, down the slope and into the shop.

“Thanks, Gwen,” the Doctor said seriously as they stepped into the Hub.

“No problem,” Gwen assured him. 

“What happened?” Rose asked, bounding up to them.

“The press,” Gwen replied.

“The press?” 

“Asking after Jack and Alex.”

“But how can they know that we’ve got anythin’ to do with them?” Rose asked, looking at the Doctor. “I mean, Alex doesn’t even have a birth certificate…”

“There’s something bigger going on here,” the Doctor muttered. “All the names and locations to the press, the fact the press know where we are and what we look like … But for what reason?”

“They’re blowing your cover,” Mickey pointed out from across the Hub. “Everyone’s gonna see your face on the six o’clock news.”

“Good point.”

“Oh God,” Rose said suddenly, glancing around at them all. “Y’know what that means? They already know your face, how long until someone realises you’re …”

“Not human,” the Doctor completed.

There was a long pause.

“No one go outside,” Gwen said quickly. “Chances are if they know the Doctor they’ll know us too.”

“We need to get the Tardis,” the Doctor said quickly. “Sarah and Ianto are in there.”

“Use the lift,” Gwen suggested. “I’ll distract them on the other side of the Plass, you run and get the TARDIS.”

“We need the defences down,” the Doctor said, looking at Brax who was sitting at the defence terminal, hands in the air.

Brax pulled a face. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

The Doctor moved over to him immediately, tapping three buttons before there came the sound of something powering down.

Brax blinked. “How did you…”

“I’ll hold them off, go!” Gwen said, moving out of the rolling door as the Doctor bounded to the lift. Rose joined him, grabbing him around the waist to steady herself as the lift began to ascend.

They emerged onto the plass, a crowd of people at the other end. The Doctor and Rose bounded to the TARDIS, diving in and slamming the door behind them.

“The press are here,” the Doctor told Sarah, moving straight to the console.

Sarah stood up immediately. “Did they see you?”

“That and more,” the Doctor replied as the TARDIS began to churn.

“Sarah,” Rose said quickly, moving to her. “They took Luke?”

Sarah nodded. “They took Alex?”

“Yeah,” Rose croaked, looking as though she might burst into tears. Sarah quickly drew her into a hug.

“How old is Alex now?”

“He’s just a year, he’s only a baby,” Rose muttered, grateful for the hug. 

Sarah sighed. “Why would they take a baby?”

“I don’t know,” Rose sobbed.

The TARDIS landed, and the Doctor turned to them both.

“Hey. Remember they took Jack, too. Jack knows Luke. He’ll look after them - both of them - until we can get there,” he told them, wrapping his arms around them both. “I never thought I’d say this, but I believe in Jack.”

Rose and Sarah nodded in sync.

“Now come on, let’s find them.”

* * *

“Okay Brax, lockdown,” the Doctor announced as he, Rose and Sarah stepped out of the TARDIS into the Hub. He was instantly confronted by Jackie, seemingly appearing from absolutely nowhere lugging along a travel case that was even bigger than her.

“Doctor, what’s goin’ on!?” she demanded to know. “Alex has been taken!?”

“Sorry,” Rose said quickly, out of the side of her mouth to him. “Thought I should get Mum here too.”

He nodded. “Jackie, find a room in the Tardis.”

“What?”

“We’re going into total lockdown, no one enters and no one leaves. Everyone’s staying here for protection.”

For once, Jackie didn’t argue. She was just staring at his face. A face which quickly told her how serious the situation was. “Okay,” she said, looking behind her to take Tony’s hand.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow as she left. “That was easy,” he mused, and then dived into action. “Mickey, got anything for me?”

Mickey looked up from his computer, frowning. “I can’t get any info on it. I mean, nothing. There’s no named source for the release to the press. Nobody seems to know how it got there. I can’t get anythin’ on the people that came in. Whoever they are, they’ve covered up pretty damn well.”

The Doctor breathed a sigh through gritted teeth, before nodding. “Okay. Thanks. Let me know if you get any further.” He turned to Rose. “Any developments?”

“No,” she replied. “It’s loopin’ the same news item on TV.”

The Doctor nodded again, then turned in the direction of his brother. “Brax, have you sorted the defences yet?”

“Working on it!” Brax shouted back, looking a little flustered.

“Okay, get up, trace Alex and Jack’s biosignatures,” the Doctor said, practically pushing him out of the seat. Brax resigned to it immediately and jogged into the TARDIS as the Doctor quickly tapped at the keyboard. “Gwen, are you back in?”

“Present!” she yelled from her chair.

Almost immediately the sounds of something powering up and clunking into place reverberated around the Hub. He then jumped up and ran to Gwen’s terminal. “Gwen, got anything?”

“... I don’t know,” Gwen confessed, handing him some printouts. “I can’t find any sort of correlation but the biographies of the abductees are strange. It’s like they abducted… Well, I can’t think of a better description, but every interesting person in the world.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, studying the paper.

“Well, you’ve got Clint Mendoza… He’s an American actor, 34-years-old,” she added at the Doctor’s blank expression. “He’s just been voted FHM’s sexiest man in the world. Then you’ve got Aray Sealy, he’s a Jamaican who just won the London Marathon. He’s 24. Then there’s Erik Babanin, 49, ranked the number one chess player in the world. Then Grimur Helgusun, 27, World’s Strongest Man…”

“What about these ones?” the Doctor asked, pointed at the bottom of the list of names which didn’t seem to be filled out with any details.

“This is what I don’t understand,” Gwen confessed. “Take Asha Fall, 32, she’s from a poor family in Malawi. There doesn’t seem to be anything on her. She lived on a farm with seven children and a husband.”

The Doctor gazed at the piece of paper for a moment, unblinking…

“Oh yes!” he suddenly cried, startling everyone in the room. “Got it!”

“Got what?” Rose asked quickly, moving beside him.

“Well what’s interesting about Jack?” the Doctor prompted.

“He’s immortal?” Mickey ventured.

“Exactly. And Luke is smart. He’s probably got more facts in his head than a Fifteen to One Grand Champion,” the Doctor continued. “He’s one of the smartest people in the world, I’ll assume. So, Luke’s one of the smartest people in the world; Jack’s the only immortal in the world; Clint Mendoza’s the best looking man in the world; Aray Sealy is the best long distance runner in the world, probably got an exceptional pair of lungs. Erik is the best chess player in the world, his logical thinking must be unbeatable…. Get it?”

“Oh my god,” Rose realised, hand over her mouth.

“Exactly,” the Doctor said. “They’re the best bits of a human mind and physique. Put them all together and you’d have the ultimate body. Somebody’s building a body.”

“But what about Asha?” Sarah asked, frowning.

The Doctor shrugged. “Something must be particularly special about her... Something that isn’t immediately obvious.”

“And Alex?” Rose prompted. 

The Doctor bit his lip, his brow furrowing. “I’m not sure.”

“Maybe cos he’s alien?” Mickey suggested. “Regeneration.”

The Doctor shook his head. “If they wanted alien they’d have taken me or Brax. Besides, why would you want to regenerate if you’re immortal?”

“Oh yeah,” Mickey muttered.

There was a knock.

Everyone looked up immediately, and then at the Doctor who was staring at the Hub door. He quickly put down the paper and gestured for Gwen to follow him. She did, picking up her gun on the way.

They reached the monitor, and Gwen gasped at the person it showed outside.

“Who is it?” Rose asked nervously.

“It’s a girl,” the Doctor said quietly.

“What?” Rose asked, astounded.

The girl looked directly up to the camera, gazing straight at them through the monitor. Her face was bruised and cut, her hair matted. There was a sort of emptiness in her eyes that the Doctor had seen so many times before. Blank, emotionless, mind controlled eyes.

After a slightly eerie pause, she placed a white envelope on the counter in the tourist information office. Then, she walked back out.

“What was wrong with her?’ Rose asked, her voice shaking.

“Mind control,” the Doctor muttered, still staring as Gwen retrieved the envelope. “That was mind control. The kind the Master can do.”

“It was him, wasn’t it!” Mickey realised. “He’s taken the fifty-six people!”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think so.”

“He wants to build himself a new body,” Mickey persisted.

“It makes sense,” Rose agreed, looking at her husband. 

“No, it doesn’t make sense,” the Doctor replied immediately. “He doesn’t need a new body. Why would he need a new body? Especially a  _ human  _ body? That’s not his style.”

“So what was he doing in her head?” Sarah asked.

“He’s workin’ with someone,” Mickey continued.

“The Master doesn’t work with people,” the Doctor countered. 

“Then what the hell just happened?” Rose asked seriously.

“I have no idea,” he murmured,before suddenly looking up, alarmed. “Leah!? Kiana!”

Rose’s eyes shot open. “Leah! Kiana!”

“She went into the TARDIS with Jackie,” Gwen said, handing him the envelope. “Kiana’s asleep in the nursery, you know that. Calm down.”

The Doctor relaxed, his shoulders sagging as Gwen gave him the envelope. “Okay.” He ripped open the envelope, pulled out a single piece of paper and read the two words on the page.

“Everyone, stop what you’re doing!” he ordered immediately, and ran to the TARDIS to stick his head in the door. “Brax, stop checking their bio signatures!”

“What? Why?” Brax asked, popping his head out of the door as the Doctor ran over to Mickey.

“Mickey, turn off the computer, stop doing it!”

“Okay,” Mickey answered quickly, hitting the power button. “Doctor?”

“Thete?” Brax asked, jogging to him. “I was just detecting a trace of their biosignatures. I am about to find them.”

“Nobody do _anything,_ don’t investigate, don’t do anything,” the Doctor said quickly, handing the piece of paper to his brother. “And _especially_ not you,” he directed at Brax.

“Do nothing,” Brax read out loud from the page. He looked up at his frantic brother, his eyebrow raised. “Thete? You’re not going to actually pay attention are you?” he asked as Rose dived in to read the message.

**Do nothing.**

“They’ve got my son, Sarah’s son, my best friend and fifty-three other innocent people, I'm playing by their rules,” the Doctor explained.

Rose nodded quickly. “Everyone stop!”

“We can't do nothin’!” Mickey said seriously.

“So what, we just sit here?” Gwen asked, frowning.

“Yep.”

“But we can't,” Sarah said weakly.

“If you've got a better idea you're welcome to share, but I'm not making this person angry,” the Doctor explained, his eyes a little wide. “If they're organised enough to abduct fifty six people at the same time around the world then they're going to know when they're searched on Google. I trust Jack and he'd die twenty times over to protect Luke and Alex but even he can't defend them if they’re directly targeted because of us sticking our noses in too deeply. And look at what they did to that poor girl.” He gestured to the door. “I’m not risking that happening to anyone else.”

“So what do we do?” Brax asked.

“Wait.”

“They'll contact us again, yeah?” Rose asked the Doctor, holding onto his arm.

“No doubt.”

“With a ransom or something,” she supposed. “What do we do then? We don't have any money … Would they want money? Is this even a ransom?”

“I don't know, but we’ll do whatever it takes, okay?”

“Okay,” Rose breathed.

The Doctor looked at Sarah. “Okay?” he repeated.

Sarah nodded silently.

“Good. Let’s just make sure we’re completely locked down and comfortable. Everyone can have a room in the TARDIS. We keep an eye on each other, we look after each other, and we wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More soon!


	9. 22nd May 2013, 17:57:12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone becomes increasingly restless as they heed the order to do nothing.

“This is insane.”

The Doctor looked at his wife, who was sitting next to him on the sofa staring blankly at the television screen ahead of her.

“Alex and Luke and Jack are gone and all we’re doing is sittin’ here watching TV,” she continued quietly.

“There’s nothing else we can do,” the Doctor said gently.

“I know, I know,” Rose muttered.

“Jack will look after them. I’m absolutely certain of that.”

“I know,” she choked out, and suddenly began to cry again.

“Four times in three days?” the Doctor said, pulling her into a hug. “New record.”

“I know,” she whined. “My time of the m-month.”

“Oh,” the Doctor muttered, before frowning slightly. “What?”

“You know, m-my period. I’m due any day now.”

“Oh,” he said again, somewhat blankly.

She pulled back to look at him. “You have n-no idea what I’m t-talkin’ about do ya?”

“No?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes with a small smile. “You know all those long yellow packets in the bathroom, the things with the st-strings?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you ever wonder what I do with them?”

“They’re not a make up thing?”

She snorted with laughter. “No. They soak up all my blood.”

“Blood!? Where are you bleeding?”

Rose laughed at his panicked expression. “How can you not know about periods? You’ve had a lot of human women in here, yeah? Sarah must’ve used ‘em.”

“I don’t think I want to have this conversation,” the Doctor realised, pulling a face.

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you’ve never heard of a period!”

“It’s a full stop at the end of a sentence in America, isn’t it?” he asked, grinning slightly.

Rose immediately realised he was teasing her. “You  _ do  _ know what a period is!”

“Of course I do,” the Doctor replied, still grinning. “When you were pregnant with Leah I read every human biology book back to front.”

“You’re such a … a … ugh!” Rose exclaimed, hitting him on the arm.

“Yeah, but you’ve stopped crying,” he pointed out.

She sighed again, before pulling him into a hug, resting her head on his chest. “God, this isn’t fair,” she whined. “Everything’s so messed up and we can’t do anythin’.”

“I know,” he muttered.

“Thete!” Brax suddenly said from the doorway with Sarah next to him, interrupting. “Have you seen the news?”

The Doctor switched to the BBC One six o’clock news as Brax and Sarah took seats on the sofa next to them. There, his own face stared back at him, looking very confused.

_ “... One-year-old son, Alex Tyler, and his friend, Jack Harkness,”  _ Gwen was saying.  _ “South Wales Police are currently working around the clock to find them. All Mr Tyler asks the abductors is that Alex and Jack are kept safe and returned home soon. Thank you.” _

_ “So far there have been no developments on where the abductees have been taken,”  _ the reporter continued over a mosaic of photographs of the abducted people.  _ “In the wake of the UN’s statement police forces around the world are on high alert. For now all the families of the abducted can do is wait. John Forringer, BBC News.” _

“I’m famous,” the Doctor muttered, staring at the TV. “This isn’t good.”

“We just need to avoid the press,” Rose said decisively. 

“That’s easier said than done,” Sarah Jane pointed out. “I should know.”

“Then we don’t go outside,” Rose said, swallowing before dropping her head into her hands. “Oh god,” she muttered, and looked back up sharply again. “Where’s Leah?”

“Her room,” Brax told her.

Rose pecked a kiss to the Doctor before standing up, brushing herself down. “I’m gonna go play with her.”

She left quickly.

The Doctor sighed, running a hand through his hair as he looked up at the others. “This is hard on her.”

“I am not surprised,” Brax replied simply.

“She’s a mother who’s lost her child,” Sarah said. “Of course she’s a little lost.”

“So are you,” the Doctor pointed out.

“Luke is nearly an adult. He’s very clever and I have no doubt he’ll be okay. Alex … is just a baby, Doctor. I’m surprised you aren’t the same as her.”

“Me being panicked isn’t going to help anyone,” the Doctor told her quietly, avoiding her eyes by staring at the floor. “Especially not Alex. I trust Jack. I have to trust Jack.”

Sarah gazed at him for a moment, glancing at Brax. Brax took the hint.

“I’ll check everyone’s fairing well,” he said, and dashed out of the door. 

Sarah dropped to sit next to the Doctor. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he mumbled.

She gazed at him for a moment. “It’s okay to have a little moment. You’ve got a lot on your mind.”

He looked up at her under heavy eyelids. “You know about the blood infection?”

She nodded.

“Who told you?”

She half-smiled at that. “I’m a journalist and Jackie was desperate to tell someone. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it to myself.”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

She drew him into a hug, which he accepted gratefully.

* * *

Finding his legs were becoming restless, the Doctor got up to go for a walk around the TARDIS. He ended up in the infirmary, to find Ianto lying there attached to several machines, his eyes half closed. However, the moment he saw the Doctor he looked up and offered a brief smile.

“Hello, Yan,” the Doctor said, dropping in the seat next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible,” Ianto replied honestly. “Is it true?”

“What?”

“Jack, Alex, and Luke are gone.”

The Doctor nodded solemnly. “Afraid so. But you know Jack, he can handle himself.”

“I’m not worried … about ... about him,” Ianto murmured.

The Doctor gave a small smile. “Thank you for protecting my son.”

“I ... could’ve done ... it better, sir.”

“You did what you could. I thank you.”

“If I can … can help …”

“You can help by lying here and getting better,” the Doctor told him seriously. “We’ll need you later.”

Ianto nodded again, and closed his eyes. The Doctor got up, looking at Martha and offering a small smile before leaving. He ended up in Kiana’s room, the little baby clearly awake and giggling randomly to herself. He scooped up the girl, holding her close.

“Hello. Don’t you go missing on me too.”

Kiana wriggled in his arms.

“I think your dad’s doing something a bit out of his depth. Total mind control? He hasn't done that for centuries.”

She wriggled some more, nearly falling out of his arms.

“Not sure why he'd want to either. Then again he's very unpredictable. Still don't know why he'd want to build a body though. Especially a human one.”

She continued to wriggle.

“You're really not warming to me are you?” the Doctor muttered, struggling to keep a hold on her. “Got a lot of dad in you I guess. You like Jack though, don’t you?”

Kiana wriggled some more, yawning widely as she did so.

“Tired?” he asked quietly. She made a humming sound, as if confirming yes.

“Okay, sorry,” he muttered, and laid her back in the cot. “Good night.”

He got up and left. He almost walked into Leah coming in the opposite direction.

“Daddy …?” she began, the tone of her voice signifying an impending question.

“Yeeees …?” he responded with the same tone of voice.

“Will you come play with me and Mummy?”

He spread a smile, diving to pick her up and hug her tightly to his chest. “Of course I will.”

* * *

_ “I apologise. You have to leave, now. You do understand, don’t you?” _

_ Rose stared at him, blinking rapidly, trying desperately not to cry. There they were. Those immortal words. She’d never imagined them coming from his mouth. _

_ “Of course I’ll still visit,” the regenerated Doctor continued, smiling. “Have to see my little ones, don’t I?” _

_ He said it as though it was fact. She could see right through him. It was a lie. He didn’t care about his children. Not anymore. _

_ “... You can’t go,” was all she managed in response, her throat dry and cracked. _

_ “If I could stay, I would, but you know the regeneration risk,” he carried on, that smile finding less and less ways to be reassuring. “Changing personas. So unpredictable.” _

_ “But … I need you,” she whispered, still unable to take her eyes off of him. _

_ “Well, we all have to make sacrifices, my dear. You can live with your mother. Or Torchwood. I’m sure somebody will put you up.” _

_ She swallowed. “But … the Tardis is my home. Our home. With you.” _

_ “No longer, my dear,” he responded, his lip curling slightly. “And I think you’ll find that the Tardis is mine, not yours.” _

_ As soon as the words left his mouth she stopped feeling sorry for herself, and instead became very angry. “You can’t do this!” _

_ Immediately he launched forward, grabbing her around the neck. His eyes had turned, those now unfamiliar ice cold bright blue eyes piercing her. “I will do what I wish and you will accept it, human.” _

_ His words left a bitter tang in the air around them, but she wasn’t taking this. She grabbed the Doctor’s hand, yanking it away forcefully. “The old you would never have done this!” _

_ “The old me was a pathetic, gibbering idiot,” he spat, like acid. “This is new me. Get used to it, my dear.” _

_ “He was far better than you!” she yelled in his face. _

_ “Do I somehow care about your stupid inferior human opinion?” His eyes narrowed to slits. “I am far superior to you. I am a Time Lord; the most glorious species ever to wander the universe. What I say goes and you, human, need to learn to start bowing.” _

_ “You’ve turned into him,” Rose whined, unable to stop herself crying, now. “You’ve turned into the Master …” _

_ “Good!” he boomed. “Maybe I should try and find him again. It’s about time we had a talk. I think we will start agreeing on a few things. Oh, crying?” He stared pointedly at the tear glistening on her cheek. “I used to find you beautiful when you cried. Now I just find it pathetic. Oh dear. Rose Tyler. I really used to love you.” _

_ “Please,” she suddenly found herself begging. “Please bring him back.” _

_ “Impossible, my dear. He’s dead now; gone forever. I’m so glad he’s dead. I couldn’t stand being that imbecile for much longer. Him and his stupid pointy hair, those childish sandshoes, the utter lankiness. I would say appearances are deceptive, but in his case he was just as gelled in his head as he was in his hair. Well, he had to be to be even remotely interested in humans, never mind reproducing with one.” _

_ There was a long, tense silence. He continued to smile inanely.  _

_ “I hate you,” she finally croaked. _

_ “Hate is such a strong word, my dear. I much prefer the term, ‘worship’.” _

_ “Get out.” _

_ “You don’t order me about.” _

_ “You’re poison!” she yelled in his face. _

_ “Oh, I love it,” he enthused. “Say that again.” _

_ She ignored the jibe. “Break the bond with me.” _

_ He almost seemed to laugh. “Can’t, I’m afraid. It is very much eternal. And would you like to know the funny part?” _

_ She blinked, stunned. “What!?” _

_ “The bond means you will never be happy with another partner again. You will pine for me, human. All day and all night you’ll be begging the skies, pledging your forgiveness and willingness to work things out, just for one last round of human sex with me. Well. that’s what the lesson is here. Don’t get involved with things you don’t understand. Like aliens, Rose Tyler. Hmm, Rose,” he suddenly mused, pausing. “Is that short for Roseanne? I never asked.” _

_ “Get lost,” she snapped, and turned away. _

_ “And with every step away from me your heart tightens,” he said from behind her. “Your curse, my dear, from now until the day you die. Endless pangs and pains and my face in your head, as you plead with me to fuck you.” _

* * *

Rose jerked awake, her eyes snapping open to come face to face with the Doctor. She jumped at the sight of him, before registering that he was the one with floppy brown hair.

“Oh god,” she whined quietly so as not to wake him, shaking.

“What?” the Doctor suddenly asked, snapping open his eyes.

She blinked. “Oh … Thought you were asleep,” she replied quietly.

“Nope,” he answered, gazing at her for a long moment. “That looked like an interesting dream.”

She bit her tongue to stop herself from crying. “Hug me.”

He frowned, but did, sliding to her to wrap his arm around her shoulder and the other around the back of her neck. “What did you dream about?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. 

He sighed, pausing for a moment before kissing her fully on the lips. He then rolled over so he was covering her, gazing down into her eyes. 

“Please don’t,” she suddenly said, the dream version of him barging through her head.

“You’re tense,” he said gently. “This will help.”

“No. It’ll hurt you.”

“I’ll be okay,” he insisted.

“Don’t be stupid,” she said in a whisper. “You can’t have sex and not increase your blood pressure.”

“I can do it.”

“No.”

“I can do it,” he said again.

“No, you can’t,” she replied gently.

“Let me prove it.”

“You don’t need to prove anything.”

He sighed, rolling off again.

“Sorry. Don’t be mad,” she begged.

“I’m not, I’m just…” He stopped, taking a breath. “... I need to go to the bathroom.”

He got up and went into the en-suite without another word, closing the door behind him and locking it. He went to the sink, staring at himself in the mirror for a moment. There was a small pattern of dark veins on the side of his chin. Faint, but very much there.

The moment he saw them, he wanted to throw up. He dived for the toilet, collapsing on his knees beside it and ducking his head inside, immediately beginning to vomit. It seemed even worse than usual as he had nothing left to throw up, and ended up just dry heaving and coughing into the toilet.

Now the fire was back, flaring inside his veins. With every heave the pain got worse, until he found he was beginning to seize up completely. He fought desperately against it, but couldn’t help the rips of cries coming from his mouth.

“Doctor?” came Rose’s cry from outside the door, but he couldn’t answer her. He was already lying on the floor shaking and gasping. “Doctor, if you don’t answer I’m gonna get Brax!”

He didn’t. He couldn’t.

“I’ll be back in a minute!” she cried, and running footsteps left the room.

He moaned, desperately trying to be heard. He lifted a shaking hand, trying to wipe at a warm liquid on his face, dribbling out of his mouth. He just about managed it, lifting his hand again to meet his eyes, only to find his hand was stained with streaks of blood.

Why would it be stained with blood?

“Thete!” Brax’s voice yelled from outside the door. “Thete, answer me!”

He didn’t, passing out.


	10. 23rd May 2013, 07:27:50

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor’s condition worsens as the human race turn on him.

“It’s not supposed to happen this fast,” Rose whined, staring at her husband lying unconscious in the bed as he had been for five long, horrible hours now. “He’s supposed to be fine for another month at least…”

Brax could barely bring himself to look at her, scrolling through the readouts of the handheld scan he’d done. He’d wanted to do a full body scan, but with Ianto in the infirmary and the TARDIS populated the secret would very quickly be out. They’d already had Martha nosing around, woken up by the commotion. 

“Okay, the blood he’s throwing up isn’t serious,” he began, staring intently at the readout. “He’s vomited so much he’s torn his oesophagus slightly. It doesn’t need surgery. The alere flamman … Oh no.”

“What?” Rose asked quickly, her head snapping up.

“It’s multiplied. His blood levels of it are up four times since I scanned him a week ago,” Brax croaked, staring at the readout in disbelief.

“But what does that mean?”

“It means if it keeps multiplying at this rate he’s going to be dead before June.”

“Oh God,” Rose muttered, head in her hands. “We’ve gotta do somethin’...”

Brax finally looked at her, his eyes heavy. “I’m sorry.”

“No, no!” Rose suddenly burst out. “Don’t you dare say that!”

“There’s nothing I can do …”

“He can’t be dyin’!” Rose replied adamantly. “There’s somethin’! There’s always somethin’!”

Brax faltered, looking at the floor again. He paused, his eyes flickering left to right before he slapped his knees, and got up.

“Okay. I will be back in a moment. Try and bring him around.”

Brax left, leaving Rose with her husband. She took his hand, squeezing it a little.

"Doctor. Doctor. It's okay. You can wake up now. We're fixing this so don't worry. Love you."

He didn't bat an eyelid, staying very still. He looked so serene.

She looked at the black marks on his chin for about the fiftieth time, sighing. A sign of how fast the illness was progressing. He couldn't be dead by June. He just couldn't. She wouldn't let him.

She pushed back his fringe from his forehead and straightened the sheets over him. It was strange that the only positive she could find was that at least when he was unconscious he couldn't be in pain anymore.

The door opened as Brax returned, holding a small medicine bottle. He quietly closed the door and retook his seat. He seemed strangely inward, barely able to look at her.

"What is that?" she asked, a little unnerved by his demeanour.

"Maghmar. It'll suppress the Alere Flamman. Should buy us some time. He’ll keep going until we stop giving it to him,” he replied quietly.

Rose’s eyes widened. “Can't we just use that until we find our memory?"

Brax quickly shook his head. “This medicine is extremely dangerous.”

“How so?”

“It's hugely addictive and extremely toxic. After a while it will start decaying him inside out.”

Rose swallowed. “How long?”

“About seven weeks,” he replied quietly. “He  _ will _ become addicted so we have to maintain it.”

She gazed at the Doctor for a moment, before looking back at Brax. She didn’t like the sound of the Doctor being addicted to a medication. “Isn't there another way?”

“No.”

“Okay,” she muttered, squeezing the Doctor’s hand again. “... What do I do?”

“I'll administer the doses and keep this medicine with me at all times. If he asks you for some, under no circumstances are you to give him any. Always check with me first. If we keep at the right dose at the right times he will be able to take it for longer.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

"Lift his head."

She did. Brax opened the bottle and turned it up on his finger before leaning forward, dabbing it on his brother’s lips.

“There,” Brax said softly, slipping the medicine back into his pocket. “Thete.”

Rose watched, fascinated as the black marks suddenly seemed to completely disappear. A tiny bruise he’d gotten falling down paled out to skin colour. His healing capabilities were being accelerated, she realised, and kept going until he was lying there with colour in his face, breathing easily.

“Thete,” Brax prompted again.

The Doctor opened his eyes. “What?” he asked, blinking a few times.

Rose immediately leant forward and hugged him, kissing him.

“Whoa,” the Doctor muttered, hugging her back. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Rose repeated disbelievingly, pulling back.

“You collapsed,” Brax explained. “You tore your oesophagus, you were vomiting blood.”

“I can’t remember,” the Doctor said, frowning as Rose kissed him again.

“I am not surprised,” Brax replied. “I’m so sorry, Thete, but when I scanned you the amount of alere flamman in your blood was up four times the amount it should have been.”

“Then how did you …?” The Doctor stopped talking, his face changing as he realised. “... Maghmar.”

“I’m sorry. I truly am. I know what I said. But I had to do something drastic.”

“It’s okay,” the younger Time Lord replied, before looking at his wife. “We need to find that memory.”

She looked at him with an immutable sadness. “How?”

“I’ll think of something.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. I know you will.”

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. They looked at each other in a panic, Rose leaping into bed beside the Doctor with amazing athleticity, Brax tip-toeing quickly into the en-suite and hiding behind the door. The Doctor hit the light as Rose ruffled up her hair and draped her arm across his chest, the both of them closing their eyes.

Two seconds later, the door opened slightly.

“Doctor? Rose?” It was Mickey. “You awake?”

The Doctor purposefully groaned, flickering open his eyes to look at Mickey blearily. “No.”

“Sorry,” Mickey said honestly. “But you gotta get up. It’s the news.”

“What about it?”

“You’re on it.”

“I know.”

“And so’s Jimmy Stone.”

* * *

Mickey hadn’t been lying. There was Jimmy on BBC Breakfast, in a VT darkly lit, dressed in a smart suit and tie and with his hair neatly combed and parted. The subtitle named him  **James Stone.**

_ “I know I sound absolutely insane, but I swear on my mother’s life it’s true,”  _ Jimmy was saying in a far posher accent than usual. His eyes were deadened - he had the same look as the mind controlled girl who’d come to Torchwood.  _ “The Doctor, Alex Tyler’s father is an alien. He abducted me … took me on his ship, started to …” _

He stopped, choking out a sob.

_ “... I can’t say it. I’m sorry. But … after I saw him on the news yesterday, I had to speak out. To stop him doing it to other people. Cos … if you look hard enough on the internet, he’s there in the footnotes, he’s everywhere. Through history. He’s an alien, a time travelling alien and he … I found out … the alien fugitive two years ago was him. He put our whole planet in jeopardy. When all the rhinos with guns came, they were the police … They wanted to arrest him. But he got away.  _

_ “He’s already messed with our history. The anti-alien group led by Alex Grimshaw, didn’t you ever wonder what happened to them? The Doctor got inside his mind and changed his thoughts. He’s now completely pro-alien. Don’t you find that weird? The amount of things this Doctor’s done that we haven’t noticed. When the Prime Minister died at Downing Street, he was there. When that ship hovered over London on Christmas day with everyone on the roof, he was there. The ghosts appearing, the hospital going to the moon, Mr Saxon and the assassination of the President… Even if you don’t believe they happened, I swear to you they did, and he had a hand in all of them.  _

_ “He needs to be stopped. He’s dangerous and unpredictable and he’s got my girl, my Rose, he stole her from me with some kind of alien mind thing and I know he doesn’t treat her well. Her or the kids he forced her to have. Alien kids, it’s not their fault, they’re only children… That’s why I want to start the fight to stop him. Get them out. I’ll raise them as my own, I don’t care, I just need to get my Rose and these innocent children out of his clutches. He’s gonna destroy our planet or die trying. And I know everyone will think I’m mad but honestly, I just want one person to believe me. Just one. Then we can start fighting back against these aliens. And Rose, if you’re listening, I’m gonna help you get out. Thank you for listening.” _

For a long while, silence reigned.

“Oh my god,” Rose finally whispered in utter shock. “Doctor?” She turned to him, her eyes wide. “What do we do?”

The Doctor didn’t have an answer for her. “Gwen?”

“You could either release a statement that he's completely insane or wait. People might not believe him,” Gwen suggested.

Mickey looked between them all. “That was pretty convincin’ though.”

“How does he know you’re a time traveller?” Rose asked quickly. “How does he know about all that other stuff?”

“I fear somebody may be feeding him information,” Brax said quietly.

The Doctor nodded at that. “That was mind control again. Same thing as before.”

“And he looks so smart,” Mickey pointed out. “You reckon somebody’s dressed him up for it?”

“Well if you had a greasy spotty drug addict in a tracksuit with a heavy Camden accent telling you he’d been abducted by aliens you might not take it as seriously as a man in a suit and Queen’s English,” the Doctor surmised, running a hand through his hair, before suddenly freezing mid-run, staring at the wall.

“Thought?” Martha enquired.

“What if …?” he began, and turned to Mickey. “Mickey, look up Jimmy. Check out his history.”

“But we know his history,” Mickey answered, confused.

“I know, but the rest of the world doesn’t. Check the prison records for any mention of him.”

Mickey immediately got it and ran off to his computer. 

Rose looked at the Doctor. “You think he …?”

“Might have had his history rewritten? Yes,” the Doctor completed.

“He can do that?” Jackie asked, stunned.

“Like the Master,” Martha realised coldly. “Just before he … you know.”

The Doctor nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Jimmy’s had an entire history made for him, just like the Master did.”

“So we’re saying it’s the Master again?” Gwen asked.

“Yes … No … I don’t know,” the Doctor moaned, hand on his head. “If it’s him why’s he keeping us at arms length? And why does he need a human body? Why’s he used Jimmy like that? He’s not subtle. Why would he start being subtle now? He wouldn’t keep himself a secret.”

“Thete’s right, this isn’t Koschei’s style,” Brax said, nodding. “He’d let the world know what he was doing. And he wouldn’t tell Thete to do nothing. The kind of person he is, he would personally invite Thete to wherever he’s keeping all of the abductees.”

“So someone’s copying his style?” Sarah asked.

“Maybe not intentionally,” the Doctor said quietly, looking at Sarah. “Sarah? Any suggestions of what to do?”

“We could call Unit. They'd give you protection,” she replied.

The Doctor shook his head. “They're not very happy with us at the moment.”

“You're the Doctor, no matter how upset with you they are they'd protect you. But I also think we should wait before we do anything drastic. Like Gwen says, people might not believe him.”

“Doctor,” Mickey called from his computer, and everyone flooded there immediately. “You were right. He’s been completely erased from prison records. He’s got profiles on every social networkin’ site.” He scrolled down the Facebook page. “He goes right back to 2005. Posts, photos, everythin’. He’s a model citizen. Charitable works, donates his paycheck, the lot. He’s a registered accountant, too.”

“Someone’s done it for him,” Rose muttered.

“Maybe it’s Jack,” Mickey suddenly said. “He can do that stuff in his sleep.”

“You mean whoever’s taken him is forcing him?” Martha asked.

“Yeah,” Mickey confirmed nodding.

“Jack can’t exactly refuse either,” the Doctor said, also nodding. “Wherever he is, Alex and Luke are too and it would only take one threat. Jack would do it to protect them.”

“So what do we do?” Martha asked, and immediately everyone looked at the Doctor.

The Doctor sighed. “... We wait.”

“Again?” Rose asked, annoyed.

“I don’t know what else to do.”

“It’s fine,” Brax said quickly. “We wait. This is starting to get dangerous. There’s no benefit in jumping into anything. If we start creating waves now the entire planet might turn against us.”

“So we wait,” Rose croaked.

“Yes,” the Doctor muttered.

“For how  _ long!?” _

“I don’t know, I’m sorry, I don’t know,” the Doctor said quickly, his voice dropping to nearly a whisper. “I just … I don’t know.”

Rose sighed, quickly going to him and hugging him. “Sorry, I’m just…”

“I know,” he muttered. “I am too.” He paused, before drawing away from Rose. “I’ll go and check the girls.”

He left, everyone staring sadly after him.

“Is he okay?” Martha asked Rose suddenly.

“What?” Rose asked defensively and quickly. Far too quickly.

Martha blinked at her sudden response. “Sorry, he just … You’re both going through quite a time, is there anything we can do?”

“No, sorry, no,” Rose answered, trying to slow herself down and look at Martha with some sort of confidence. “We’re okay. We’re just a bit scattered at the moment.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

Rose offered a smile and followed her husband into the TARDIS.

“Do you ever get that feeling like you’re not being told something?” Martha wondered aloud to herself as Rose disappeared.

All Brax, Jackie and Sarah could do was shrug and look away.


	11. 7th June 2013, 07:45:02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose takes matters into her own hands.

_ “Getting closer… closer…” _

* * *

The Doctor woke up, shivering and panting, without quite knowing how he’d got so out of breath. He’d been asleep. How could he have let himself fall asleep? 

He looked sideward at Rose fast asleep beside him. He could see the glistening tear tracks on her face in the little light as she slept, her arm under one pillow with her face turned towards him.

It had been just over two weeks since the abduction now, and still they had done absolutely nothing. He knew Rose hated him for it. She was crying herself to sleep most nights and didn’t want him to say anything to her. He knew why. She was fed up with his words. The endless, “it’ll be okay” and, “Jack’s taking care of him” were not sufficient any more, not even for him. But what else was there to say? Staying back was logically right, but it didn’t feel morally right.

To top it all off, Jimmy’s plea had gone further than any of them could have imagined, and suddenly the world was a lot, lot more ominous. Social media had exploded - hashtag aliens, hashtag abductees, hashtag Doctor - the public had listened to Jimmy’s story with wrapped attention, and were happily drinking it up. More people were coming out with stories of aliens, and anti-alien groups were emerging across the world like never before. By the time Gwen had suggested releasing a statement it was far,  _ far  _ too late. Now all they could do was hide. There were press camping just a few metres above their heads in the Bay, waiting for any sign of any of them. Rhys had only just about got through undetected.

It was a weird feeling. The tiny blue planet he had loved for so long; the place he had taken refuge on countless occasions; the one place in the Universe he felt at home was now baying for his alien blood. Martha had called UNIT, but they didn’t want to know. Not even the Brigadier could help.

Whoever had suited up and mind controlled Jimmy was clearly trying to tear the Doctor apart from Earth, and they were doing a very good job of it. The entire world wanted to see him dead.

For a warm-blooded species, the human race was so very, very cold.

He glanced at the clock. 8:14am. He quietly and carefully got up so as not to wake up Rose, pulling on a shirt before slipping out of the door, and headed to the kitchen. He nearly groaned when he saw Brax in there, but forged ahead and stepped inside.

“Thete?” Brax asked immediately, clearly concerned.

“I’m fine,” the Doctor responded automatically, moving to the kettle. “Just want some tea.”

Brax sighed, still staring at him as the Doctor took a mug down. He continued to feel Brax’s eyes on him, and got a bit annoyed.

“Can you stop staring at me?” he asked, turning to face Brax with the mug still in his hand.

“Sorry,” Brax muttered, and looked away. The Doctor sighed, turned back to the kettle, and suddenly all the muscles in his right arm died for no apparent reason. The mug hit the floor as it slipped out of its unrelenting fingers, the handle breaking off on impact.

The Doctor quickly grabbed his right arm with his left hand, flexing his fingers as he stared down at the mug in partial disbelief. 

Brax got up immediately. “I’ll clear it,” he muttered, bending down to pick up the mess.

The Doctor could only stare at his arm. He could see the tell-tale signs of black creeping up through his veins. He rapidly decided he didn’t want tea any more, and turned to leave.

“Thete, sit down,” Brax implored, putting the mug in the incinerator bin.

He did, still holding his arm. Brax flicked the kettle on and pulled down another mug before dropping down in the opposite seat, pulling out the Maghmar from his pocket. He measured out a quarter of a cap, and gave it to the Doctor.

The Doctor quickly drank it. “I need more,” he said, pushing the cap back.

“That’s enough,” Brax said, slipping the medicine back into his pocket.

“Give me more,” the Doctor urged, his eyes wide.

“No. That’s all you need. I know you’re addicted now, Thete, but you’ve at least got to try and fight it.”

The Doctor sighed, looking at his arm. The marks had gone. He quickly chastised himself. “I never thought I’d be addicted to a drug,” he said quietly.

“Neither did I,” Brax muttered.

“What do I do, Brax?” he asked seriously in a quiet voice. “Everything’s gone wrong and I’ve got no control.”

Brax sighed, getting up to finish the tea. “I don’t know, Thete.”

“My son’s been abducted, my body’s dying, I’m addicted to a drug, my wife’s getting more and more depressed every day, we still don’t know what our memory was and now the entire Earth has turned against me. This hurts, Brax.”

“I know,” Brax murmured, giving him the mug of tea and taking a seat again.

“I know it’s mad, but this is my home,” the Doctor continued. “Earth. It’s where I live. I love the human race. I love this planet.”

“They will come around,” Brax assured him. “It’s a phase. I do not know much about humans but I know they’re fickle. It’s one dramatic thing after another with them. Today it is aliens, tomorrow a celebrity will have a baby.”

The Doctor looked at him, and couldn’t help but grin. “Going native?” he asked.

Brax smiled back. “Oh, I am very invested in the affairs of Posh and Becks.”

The Doctor laughed, taking a sip of tea.

“Go to bed,” Brax ordered, getting up. “I will see you later.”

He left.

The Doctor finished his tea, but didn’t go to bed. He sat there for a solid twenty minutes, staring at the table until Sarah arrived.

“Good morning,” she greeted him, hitting the kettle.

“Morning,” the Doctor replied absently.

“How’s Rose?” Sarah wondered.

The Doctor sighed. He couldn’t lie to Sarah. “Not good.”

“I noticed,” she confessed.

“I don’t think she’s very happy with me at the moment,” he muttered, chin in hand.

“Of course she’s not. Your only son is missing and we’re all insisting that we hide and do nothing. She’s not happy with any of us. Not to mention everything else that’s happening. She’s frustrated,” she said, finishing off the tea.

“And she has every right to be,” the Doctor added. “She’s just not talking to me like she used to and I don’t think that’s helping either of us.”

“She’s very tired, Doctor, and so are you. There’s a limit to how many crises you can handle at a time,” she said, sitting opposite him.

He smiled at that, before the smile fell again rapidly. “She’s crying a lot, Sarah. She cries in her sleep. All I do is repeat the same words over and over. She’s fed up with me saying them, and so am I.”

“She’s not looking for words, she just wants comfort,” Sarah told him. “You two have been through too much together to fall apart like this. It may not seem like it but you need each other now more than ever.”

The Doctor sighed, looking at her. “Relationships are difficult, aren’t they?”

“I don’t think they’re meant to be easy,” Sarah replied. “You of all people should know you have to work on a happily ever after.”

He sighed, getting up. “Thank you, Sarah.”

“You’re welcome.”

He left with a little more spring in his step.

* * *

Brax entered the console room from Torchwood three days later, only to find Rose sitting on the chair, clearly deep in thought. 

“Rose?” he asked, stopping by the console.

She looked up. “Sorry,” she said, making to move away, but he held up a hand.

“Don’t get up. You look troubled,” he noted.

“I’m … oh, it’s nothin’,” she finished, waving her hand.

“No, go on,” Brax insisted, sitting down next to her. 

“Well … I’m worried about the Doctor.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“I mean … he’s collapsing more recently. What if he collapses and no one’s there? What if ... we can’t find him? What if we don’t get there in time? He could die, Brax. All on his own.”

Brax frowned for a moment, gazing at her. “You’re right,” he finally decided, and moved to the console monitor. “Let me show you something.”

Rose got up, her brow furrowed. “What?”

“We can monitor him from here,” Brax told her, pressing a few keys on the console. “Check his biorhythms constantly. Look.”

He pointed at the monitor where it showed a load of Gallifreyan symbols.

“I don’t understand that,” Rose said quietly.

“Hold on,” Brax said, and with a few button presses the Gallifreyan symbols suddenly turned into English. She leant forward, closely scrutinising it.

**Theta Sigma (registered passenger #1) biorhythms checklist**

**Species: Gallifreyan/Human hybrid**

**Heart rate: (1) OK (2) OK | Blood pressure: Low-mid | Blood sugar: OK | Breathing: OK | Central Nervous System: OK | Body Temp.: OK | Electrocerebral activity: Good**

**Infections: Alere Flamman detected, blood cell content 0.3**

**Foreign substances: General sustenance / Drug compound(s) - B515-799-43-7/10, F585-932-12-1/10, F585-888-91-7/5**

**Warnings: Blood cell override (A) | Prognosis: (A) Terminal, < 7 weeks (Sol 3 time) **

**Location: Bedroom #2, TARDIS Type 40, on Sol 3,** **51.4630° N, 3.1640° W**

**-END-**

**Further information? Y/N**

“Observe the infections category,” Brax said, pointing. “If that number there after blood cell content - 0.3 - increases above 0.6, that means he is in danger. 0.8 almost certainly means he is unconscious. All of these drug compounds are the Maghmar, his nutritional supplements and painkillers. And it gives you the location too, but it can only find him in a planet-wide radius.”

Rose nodded. “Okay. Is the low-mid blood pressure okay?”

“It is the Maghmar’s effect; suppressing it so it’s far less likely to spike. When his blood pressure’s high the blood cell content will increase and that is alarm bells. It’s why he has been rather dozy recently … Well, more than usual.”

Rose didn’t even have the willpower to smile at that. “Thank you, Brax.”

“No problem,” he replied, standing back from the monitor, before gazing at her for a moment. “Are you well?”

She sighed. “... Yeah.”

“Thete’s worried about you.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “I just … I need some space. I’m not angry at him, I’m just …”

“Frustrated,” Brax completed.

“Yeah,” she said quietly.

“I understand,” he said, nodding. “I’ll leave you alone.”

“Thank you,” she said, hand on his arm. “I don’t wanna be mean.”

“I know you don’t, It’s fine,” he insisted. “If there’s anything I can do…”

She finally offered him a smile. “You already have.”

“You’re welcome. I will see you later,” he said, and left.

Rose watched him go, pausing for a few seconds before diving to the monitor. She quickly hit back from the Doctor’s screen to the list of passengers, and hedged her bets on passenger number four.

**Alex Tyler (registered passenger #4) biorhythms checklist**

**Species: Gallifreyan/Human hybrid**

**Heart rate: (1) Fast (2) Fast | Blood pressure: Mid-high | Blood sugar: OK | Breathing: Stilted | Central Nervous System: OK | Body Temp.: High | Electrocerebral activity: Good**

**Infections: Lung infection, NMS (Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome)**

**Foreign substances: General sustenance / Drug compound(s) - F711-555-12-2/9**

**Warnings: High adrenaline, Minor malnutrition, Fast heart rate, Stilted breathing, High temperature - IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION REQUIRED**

**Location: Sol 3,** **51.5081° N, 0.0761° W**

**-END-**

**Further information? Y/N**

Rose’s breath caught in her throat as she stared at the readout, shaking badly.

She had Alex’s location, and he was sick - in desperate need of medical help. A lung infection, malnourished, and what was that drug compound and NMS?

She hit  **Y,** and then the drug compound.

**Drug compound(s) - F711-555-12-2/9**

**Scanning database…**

**Complete.**

**Neuroleptic compound**

She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote the co-ordinates and the words ‘Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome’ down. She cancelled the biorhythms windows on the console monitor, and left quickly into Torchwood.

Mickey was at his desk, so she quickly retreated, hiding inside the TARDIS doors holding the piece of paper to her chest. She needed a computer badly …

Taking a firm decision, she stuffed the piece of paper back into her pocket and stepped out fully into Torchwood. Mickey didn’t even notice her pass him as she quietly climbed the steps and stepped into Jack’s office.

It was a little unkempt - just as he’d left it that night. She quickly crossed to his desk, flicking on a lamp, taking a seat and opening the laptop.

A login screen immediately popped up.

She paused for a moment, frowning. She then tried various combinations of usernames and passwords, ranging from the username as ‘Jack The Time Agent’ and ‘Jack The Sexy’. None of them worked, and a solid twenty minutes passed by of failures to login.

She then clicked the username box, and typed in ‘ **Guest** ’. To her complete surprise, it worked. Jack  _ really  _ needed to up his security.

Wasting no time she brought up Google. She then pulled out the slip of paper and flattened it out on the desk, first typing in the word ‘ **Neuroleptic** ’.

“Antipsychotics, also known as neuroleptics or major tranquilizers, are a class of psychiatric medication primarily used to manage psychosis including delusions, …” she read out loud. Alarmed, she clicked on the click and scrolled down to the side effects. “Sedation, headaches, dizziness, diarrhea, anxiety …”

This list went on, but she quickly decided she’d already seen enough. She hit back, and quickly typed in the co-ordinates of Alex’s location.

The location came up almost immediately, and instantly she felt very, very sick.

She had to tell the Doctor. He would do something now. Alex was in severe danger …

She was already pulling out her phone to call him, before suddenly Mickey's voice resounded up the steps.

“Everyone, get in here! Rose!”

Rose quickly shut the laptop and ran out of the door, her phone still in her hand. She arrived at Mickey’s desk seconds before the Doctor, who she quickly grabbed by the arms.

“Doctor, I need to …”

“Look!” Mickey interrupted, pointing at the screen as everyone arrived.

_ “... The body is known to be that of the Hollywood actor, Clint Mendoza, who was one of the fifty-six abductees. He leaves behind a wife and four-year-old son,”  _ the reporter said.

_ “We have identified the body as that of Clint Mendoza,”  _ a policeman said.  _ “The circumstances of his death are unknown, but we are continuing our investigations. His death is being treated as suspicious.” _

_ “What happened to Clint Mendoza is unknown,”  _ the reporter continued, _ “but it’s clear wherever the abductees are they are in serious danger, and for now all the families can do is hope.” _

“They found him in the Thames twenty minutes ago,” Mickey explained. “His face was disfigured, like it had been pulled off. And … they found those words, cut into his chest.”

“What words?” Martha asked, unusually quietly.

“... Do nothing.”

“Oh god,” Rose whined.

“Alex is fine,” the Doctor said quickly, a hand on her arm. “If he was hurt I’d feel it.”

“No, he’s ...” she began, frustrated, and then quickly realised. That body was a warning: a warning to her. She’d stuck in her nose too deeply. They’d seen her scanning Alex’s biorhythms. Twenty-five minutes ago she’d been scanning the biorhythms. Clint Mendoza’s body had turned up twenty minutes ago. Because of her.

She couldn’t tell the Doctor. She couldn’t tell anyone. Clint Mendoza’s body had just been a warning. They had only taken five minutes to do the job and made sure she knew. The next time it could be Alex or Luke.

“But one of them’s turned up  _ dead,”  _ she ended up spurting out.

“I know,” the Doctor muttered.

“And we’re just gonna carry on sittin’ here,” she said, all the pent up anger and frustration somehow taking her over completely.

“... Yeah.”

“Why!?” Rose suddenly yelled, slamming a fist on the table and making Mickey’s pen pot jump in the air. She didn’t want to do this,  _ she didn’t want to do this ... _

“We have to!” the Doctor replied, his voice raising.

“I’m sick of waitin’!” she yelled back, trying desperately to bite back her words but they were just spluttering out of her mouth with no control.

“Don’t you think I am  _ too?”  _ the Doctor shouted, standing up. Everyone was watching them now. “I can’t stand this either!”

“Why don’t we  _ go,  _ then!?” she demanded. “Just trace the biosignatures and get ‘em!”

“I  _ told  _ you, this …”

“I don’t  _ care!”  _ she screamed. “I’m sick of waitin’ and wonderin’ what the hell is happenin’ to our son!”

“Thete…” Brax warned lowly, but nobody of any species was listening to him.

“He’s okay, Ja-” the Doctor started, but was cut off.

“Cos  _ Jack’s  _ with him!?” she asked, infuriated. “Jack’s not perfect! He can’t guarantee anythin’!”

“No, but he’ll ma-”

“So what you’re just  _ givin’ up,  _ aren’t ya!?”

“How am I giving up!?”

“You sittin’ there lookin’ all doe-eyed sayin’ you can’t do anythin’!”

“Theta!” Brax urged, his eyes a little wider.

“I-” the Doctor had barely got the syllable out of his mouth.

“You’re not even  _ tryin’!  _ You don’t  _ care,  _ do you!?” Rose screamed.

“Of course I care!” the Doctor suddenly bellowed, his fists clenched.

“If you cared you’d be there savin’ them right now!”

“I  _ care!!!”  _

“Then  _ do _ somethin’!”

“We  _ can’t!!!” _

“I  _ hate  _ this!!!”

“You’re not the only one!”

“This isn’t  _ fair!” _

“Nothing’s fair!” the Doctor roared back, and suddenly went as stiff as a board. There was a collective gasp as he hit the floor with a loud clang, gasping and staring above him with wide, fixed eyes.

Rose only looked at him for two seconds before her eyes filled up again and she ran into the TARDIS, riddled with anger, frustration, and  _ pure guilt  _ at what she’d done.


	12. 10th June 2013, 18:03:21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The argument with Rose causes the Doctor to nearly die. Rose makes a difficult decision.

“Rose!” Brax yelled, diving to his brother.

“I’ll look after ‘er,” Jackie said quickly, and rushed after Rose with Sarah in tow as Brax leant over his brother.

“Does … Does this m-make you h-happy, Brax?” the Doctor grated through gritted teeth.

“Why on Gallifrey would this make me happy, Theta?” Brax asked, genuinely confused as he pillowed his brother’s head.

“I … c-can’t even … even argue and I … I c-collapse. G-gotta look … a-aft-ter me …”

“I am going to ignore that and put it down to stress,” Brax told him seriously, pulling off the Doctor’s shoes and unbuttoning his shirt as he looked up at the group. “I need oxygen and a blanket. Quick!” he added on the end as Mickey, Martha and Gwen just stood there, transfixed. After a brief couple of seconds, Mickey and Gwen ran off, leaving Martha standing there.

“It’s all right, I’ve got you, Thete,” Brax said quickly, bunching up his sleeve to wipe at the sweat on his brother’s brow.

The Doctor suddenly laughed, stilted in hiccups. “Oh B-Brax … y-you real-ly c-c … care ab-bout m-me … dontcha?”

“This is serious, Theta!” Brax shouted, resting a hand on the Doctor’s chest to check his hearts. They were slowing down …

“G-giv-ving m-me illeg-gal dr-drugs …” the Doctor continued, his words becoming more and more stilted before he laughed again - coming out in a choking sound. “I’m a-addic-t-ted t-to a d-drug … M-Martha … h-he’s g-given m-me an … an addict-tion j-just t-to s-save m-my … m-my l-life …”

“Brax, tell me what’s going on!” Martha suddenly cut in, pushing Brax back from the Doctor. “What have you been doing to him!?”

“Helping him!” Brax responded, diving back to his brother to grab his head between his hands. 

“What’s  _ happening!?”  _ she demanded to know.

Brax ignored her. “His pupils are dilated …”

“G-go o-on … B-B-Brax … t-tell h-her …” - the Doctor gasped in a desperate breath and forced his last word out - “... e-everyth-thing!”

“Get away from him!” Martha yelled, grabbing Brax’s shoulder and pushing him forcefully away.

“No, I’m  _ helping!”  _ Brax said desperately, begging her to believe him. 

“It doesn’t look like it from here!” Martha snapped back.

The Doctor suddenly stopped making any noise, his shaking ceasing. Martha and Brax immediately stopped arguing and looked over just in time to find the Doctor having a seizure.

“What the hell is happenin’?” Mickey demanded to know, having returned with an oxygen tank and Gwen holding a blanket.

Martha took the reins, stepping forward and putting her arms out as a barrier. “Stay back, don’t touch him, anyone!”

“Daddy?” suddenly came a voice from across the Hub. They all looked up, panicking at the sight of Leah standing there, staring transfixed at her father.

“Leah, let’s go inside the Tardis,” Gwen said quickly, shoving the blanket in Mickey’s arms and jogging to the girl.

Leah completely ignored her, running down to her dad instead. “Daddy!” she wailed at the sight of him.

Brax quickly moved to her, dropping to her height and stopping her from getting near. “You know how Daddy’s sick?”

Leah looked at her uncle, tears in her eyes. “Yeah?”

“This is part of that,” he told her gently.

“It looks scary but he’s absolutely fine,” Martha continued, trying desperately to ignore the flailing man beside her and offered Leah a calm, collected smile.

Leah attempted to move forward, but Brax quickly stopped her.

“Don’t go near him, he can’t control his limbs and he might accidentally hit you,” he warned.

For a moment Leah just stared at her daddy, transfixed. He continued to flail, making horrific noises.

“Make it stop, Uncle Brax,” she begged, her eyes filling up.

“I can’t, he’ll stop soon,” he answered.

“I don’t like it.”

“And you shouldn’t,” Martha said quietly, pulling the girl into a hug.

“Daddy,” she whined, crying in her aunt's arms.

Finally the Doctor stopped seizing, and Brax pounced on him with the oxygen and blanket. Leah ran forward immediately, kneeling down beside his head.

“Pohh, pohh, alee,” she implored. “Ei’mina’eon, pohh.”

Brax checked his hearts, and immediately his eyes shot wide open. “Martha, get a defibrillator!” he said urgently, hovering his cheek over his brother’s mouth.

“Uncle Brax?” Leah whined.

“Gwen, please take Leah out of here,” Brax ordered him.

“No!” Leah wailed, hugging her Dad’s head protectively.

“Gwen!” Brax urged, pulling Leah away. Leah immediately burst into tears, struggling against Gwen’s hold, but Gwen managed to get her away just in time for Martha to arrive with the defibrillator. Brax practically ripped the bag in two to get at it as Martha opened the Doctor’s shirt. His chest was riddled with strange black lines.

“Martha, I can’t use this human technology!” Brax said urgently, shoving the now destroyed defibrillator bag to her. Within moments she had activated it, had the paddles in her hands and a determined look on her face.

“Clear!”

Brax got out of the way as Martha lowered the paddles and shocked the Doctor over his left heart. He jolted, and in quick succession she jolted his right heart. Immediately the Doctor gasped, sucking in breath, but his eyes remained closed.

“Get him to the infirmary,” Martha urged and Mickey ran off to get a stretcher.

* * *

It was already 11pm, and Sarah was sitting beside the Doctor in the infirmary, holding his hand.

Braxiatel had been forced to tell the others everything. Everyone knew about the alere flamman now - there was no hiding it. Everyone had taken the news as badly as expected, and had each in turn come to visit the Doctor. He hadn’t been conscious, but nobody seemed to care.

Sarah knew she shouldn’t have, but she’d listened from the door to some of their laments. Nobody was more distressed than Martha, who had been chastising herself for obsessing over the birth plan when he clearly had been reluctant. 

_ “I should’ve noticed, should’ve guessed …”  _ she had said between sobs.

Mickey hadn’t been much better. He was clearly trying to be the strong one as his wife was so broken up.

_ “I’ll help raise your kids, I swear, treat ‘em like my own …”  _ he’d said.

Gwen and Rhys had come together. Always the optimist, Sarah couldn’t help but think. They had sat there proclaiming that they’d help in any way they could with the memory.

_ “And of course we’ll look after Kiana while you’re finding it, she and Anwen really get on …” _

Then there was just the quiet. The TARDIS, despite being filled with many chatty adults and children who over the past few days had created a jovial atmosphere, was now in pure silence. She’d only seen Rose briefly for about two minutes, being given updates by Brax. She’d left very quickly after. Sarah didn’t blame her, because she knew Rose was blaming herself. Since then, just the silence. But no more so than from the Doctor.

Sarah had always found it strange, especially with this new Doctor. He was always so full of energy - a kid with too many E numbers - running around saving planets and dazzling every person in range with that 100-watt smile. He could talk until the cows came home and save a planet quicker than the inhabitants could pick their nose.

Now here he was, terminally ill. Lying in a bed silent to the world, linked up to several monitors with a nose cannula.

When he was like this, it didn’t feel right.

“Why does Daddy sleep so much when he’s ill?” Leah suddenly asked. 

It had been so quiet Sarah had almost forgotten she was there. She had refused to go to bed.

“Sleep is very healing,” she replied gently to the four-year-old. “Everyone heals faster when they sleep. Sleep is magic.”

“Like chicken soup? Daddy said chicken soup is magic.”

Sarah couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, exactly like chicken soup.”

“I wish he wasn’t ill so much,” Leah whined.

“Your Daddy is an extraordinary man who takes many risks,” Sarah answered. “Being ill is part of that.”

“What does extraordinary mean?”

“It means he’s very, very special.”

“Yeah,” Leah agreed. “Mummy says he’s like Superman ‘cept he doesn’t wear his underpants over his trousers.”

Sarah laughed again. “She is very right. But remember, even Superman needs someone to save him sometimes.”

Leah nodded, just staring at her father for a moment before someone entered the infirmary behind them.

Sarah looked up to see Rose standing there, staring at the Doctor with tears in her eyes. Sarah quickly got up, taking Leah’s hand to help her down from the bed.

“Come on, let’s give your mummy and daddy some privacy and get you to bed,” she said. For once Leah didn’t argue, only stopping to hug her mum.

“It’s not your fault,” Sarah told Rose quietly, seriously. “Remember that.”

Rose didn’t reply to that, just dropping to hug her daughter in return, kissing her.

“Love you,” she told the girl.

“I love you too, mummy,” Leah responded, before she and Sarah left together.

Rose looked up at the Doctor again, taking a deep breath before moving forward to sit in the chair Sarah had vacated next to him.

She took his hand, feeling it in her fingers.

“Hey,” she whispered to him. “I’m so,  _ so  _ sorry. Oh god, I don’t know what I was doin’, I just exploded. And it nearly killed you. I’m sorry, please,  _ please  _ forgive me. I didn’t mean it, I know you care, I know you were just doin’ what you could protect them. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I’ve been so distant. I’m just a mess. We both are. But I know what I need to do and you’re gonna hate me. Or think I’m mad at you. I’m not mad at you -­ God, how could I ever be mad at you? ­- this is just what I have to do and please just ... get it. Get what I’m sayin’. Trust me, like I trust you. I'm not abandonin' you I swear, I'm just doin' the right thing. So don't be sad, or angry, or pull that face like you're about to blow up a planet, just let it happen. Cos I love you and I don't think I say it enough. I really love you. Please know that. I'm sorry I'm doin' this to you. But it's gotta be done. Else they’ll kill him.”

She paused, just staring at his impassive face for a few moments as she continued to run her fingers down his hand.

"That's kinda it. Better do it, I guess. God, I'm scared. Got pretty used to relyin' on you, I guess. I'll just do what you'd do. But I reckon I know your head better than you do now. Except all the rants you do. I can't do those."

She paused again, swallowed, and closed her eyes as she started again.

"Actually there is somethin' else. I wouldn't say if you were awake ... But ... Look, I'm not an idiot. I know you don't sleep. I figured out why ages ago. Just feel okay to talk to me about it, yeah? I'll listen. We've been through too much. If Volag-Noc hurt you that bad in your head then please lemme help. Don't be ashamed. Leah had PTSD for so long, but we got through it, didn't we? So we can get you through it too. Cos you're not impervious. Actually, you got it dead on at our weddin’. You always try to be this rock, lettin' everything wash over your head, but I know it doesn't really. You hurt, just like everyone else. I know it hurts really bad right now but I'll make it better, I swear. Don't be scared. I'm not gonna judge you. You've cried so much into me and I’ve cried so much into you it's impossible for me to. So just tell me, okay? That's what makes us great together. We share our pain, and please just ... Feel okay to share yours with me. I hate seein' you like this."

He remained very still. For another couple of seconds she just gazed at him, before leaning forward to kiss his unresponsive lips.

"Really goin' this time. Can't put it off anymore. I'll call you. I’m sorry again. I really am. I messed up so bad. Please be okay. Love you."

And with that, she walked out of the infirmary, into their bedroom, picked up the backpack she’d prepared, slung it over her shoulder and stepped out into the corridor. She met no one as she walked down to the console room, straight to the monitor.

She brought up the biorhythms, and clicked on Passenger #2.

**Rose Tyler (registered passenger #2) biorhythms checklist**

**Species: Human**

**Heart rate: (1) OK | Blood pressure: OK | Blood sugar: OK | Breathing: OK | Central Nervous System: OK | Body Temp.: OK | Electrocerebral activity: Good**

**Infections: None**

**Foreign substances: General sustenance**

**Warnings: Pregnancy positive less than 4 weeks**

**Location: Console Room, TARDIS Type 40, on Sol 3,** **51.4630° N, 3.1640° W**

**-END-**

**Further information? Y/N**

Rose’s heart missed a beat.

**Warnings: Pregnancy positive less than 4 weeks**

“Oh God,” she whispered under her breath, her head snapping down to her belly. she rested a hand just below her naval, her face etched with a combination of horror, fear and confusion.

She looked back at the monitor, and went for further information.

**Warnings: Pregnancy positive less than 4 weeks**

**Genetic father: Theta Sigma (registered passenger #1)**

**Chromosome: XY**

**Status: Healthy**

**Further information unavailable - mediscan recommended**

**Back? Y/N**

“No, no, no,” she muttered, hitting back twice to get back to the passenger list. She clicked on herself, and hit delete.

With nothing but a low buzz, her entry vanished. Almost immediately the TARDIS made a squeaking noise, as if she was whining.

She rested a hand on the console. It was strange how normal it felt now to talk to the time machine. “We’re gonna be fine,” she said aloud. “Me and the baby. You just take good care of him, yeah? I can’t stay here. Everyone’ll be in danger. And don’t you dare tell him I’m pregnant. You know what he’s like - he’ll freak out. He’s got enough to think about as it is.”

The TARDIS made a noise not unlike a defeated sigh.

“Thanks,” Rose told her, and let go of the console. She then picked up her bag, slung it over her shoulders, checking the coast was clear before moving to the lift. She then broke the ground above to find the hordes of press were still there in vans, and lots of people in tents who were out for her husband’s alien blood. She pulled up her hood and quickly and quietly made her way towards the train station.


	13. 11th June 2013, 07:20:55

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor struggles to cope, before he receives a frightening communication.

The Doctor woke up eight hours later, his head pounding.

He eased open his eyes, flinching and blinking a few times to allow his pupils to adjust to the light. Within moments someone loomed into his vision - Braxiatel.

“Good morning,” Brax greeted.

“Morning,” the Doctor responded tiredly.

Sarah appeared next, taking his hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay …” the Doctor muttered, checking his surroundings. He was in the infirmary. Why was he in the infirmary? “What happened?” 

“You had an argument with Rose,” Brax told him patiently. “You collapsed, then had a tonic-clonic seizure and a hearts attack.”

The Doctor nodded slowly. There wasn’t much he could say to that. 

“The others know,” Brax continued. “I had to explain.”

“It’s okay,” the Doctor replied. “Where’s Rose?” 

“Still asleep I think,” Brax told him. “She’s not taking it very well.”

“Can you get her?” the Doctor asked.

Brax nodded. “Of course I will,” he said, and left.

“Sarah,” the Doctor said, and she moved to him. “Tell me she’s not blaming herself.”

“I told her not to, but I think she is, yes.”

“This … It isn’t her fault. This is my body not being able to cope. She had every right to yell at me.”

“I know,” Sarah replied softly. “I’ll talk to her again. But I don’t think she’s going to change her mind.”

“I know,” the Doctor replied quietly.

“The others are anxious to talk to you.”

“I don’t doubt,” the Doctor answered. “They must be angry.”

“Oh, I think the time for anger is long past,” Sarah assured him. “They just want to help. Martha says she might know something about your memory, and frankly we’re not turning them away.”

The Doctor could only nod.

* * *

Braxiatel met Jackie in the corridor on the way to the Doctor and Rose’s bedroom, who looked a little panicked.

“Brax,” she said breathlessly.

“What is it?”

“I can’t find Rose. I made her breakfast but she weren’t in her room. I’ve checked all the usual places …”

“Okay, relax,” Brax responded immediately. “She probably just went for a walk.”

Jackie instantly relaxed. “You’re right,” she conceded. 

“I’ll find out where she is, hold on.”

* * *

Brax walked to the TARDIS console, and brought up the biorhythm passenger list. 

**Registered passenger #1**

**Registered passenger #3**

**Registered passenger #5**

Brax frowned, and refreshed the page. It still only had the three entries. He checked each one in turn - the Doctor, Leah, and himself. Where were Rose and Alex?

Almost immediately he answered his own question.

“Oh no.”

* * *

“Sorry… I didn’t mean any of you to see that,” the Doctor finally began after several moments of silence, Martha, Mickey, Gwen, Rhys and Sarah all sat around the bed.

“What kind of sentence is that?” Martha asked seriously, both annoyed and depressed at the same time. She quickly checked herself. “Sorry. I just…”

“I know,” he interrupted softly. 

“Brax told us everything,” Gwen said quietly.

“Yeah. Sorry we didn’t say … We’ve been trying to fix it.”

“You need a memory?” Martha asked.

He nodded. “In Manchester. You know anything about what happened there?”

“First I heard was when the aliens captured you,” Martha began. “We found Rose and Leah in the teleport unconscious, and the link was severed, leaving you and Jack trapped in the ship. Jack turned up a few hours later, saying he’d been killed and put in waste disposal and you were still with them. Your arm had been nearly severed off by a cheap teleport.”

“Jack told me to do a scan for any black market ship communications,” Mickey added. “They were auctionin’ you off. They had an argument with some guy and then sold you to the Sycorax.”

Martha nodded. “Rose took Jack and they went off. They came back with you bleeding badly, you went straight into surgery. Then suddenly Rose collapsed when she was with me, she was bleeding, stomach pains, hyperventilating and in the end fainted. I took her into emergency. No one told me what happened after that but Rose started becoming really withdrawn. She was very sad, crying all the time, then you woke up, Doctor, and she got worse. You and her, you started drifting. After a while you kicked everyone but Jack out of the Tardis. After that, you brought Leah here saying you had something to deal with, and left. A day later you came back and it was like nothing had happened.”

“That’s when we wiped our memory,” the Doctor muttered.

“You intentionally wiped your memory?” Martha asked.

The Doctor nodded. “It must’ve been extremely bad for me to even consider wiping my memory.”

“Sounds like it had to do with Rose’s illness more than anything else,” Rhys noted.

“Why would that make me angry, though?” the Doctor asked seriously. “And specifically, angry with her? I can’t imagine any illness doing that. Where is she?” he suddenly asked, looking around. “She needs to know th-”

Almost as if on cue, Brax appeared in the doorway alongside Jackie and Tony with a look on his face that the Doctor knew spelt bad news. He sat up immediately.

“Brax?”

Brax avoided his gaze. “Thete… Rose is gone.”

“What!?”

“She’s not on the ship. I think … Well, she’s … deleted herself and Alex off of the passenger list.”

The Doctor stared at him, wide-eyed. “But I've never shown her …”

“It was me,” Brax murmured in reply.

“What!?”

“I'm sorry, she was worried about you and I thought I could reassure her by …”

“You showed her how to use it, didn’t you,” the Doctor interrupted, absolutely tense. “She’s looked at Alex!”

“... I assume so.”

“She’s gone to get him!” the Doctor realised, disconnecting himself from the machines and hauling himself out of the bed. Martha tried to stop him but he quickly pulled away, grabbing his shirt and pulling it on.

“No, Thete!” Brax said quickly, moving to rest a hand on his arm.

“You have  _ no right  _ to talk to me!” the Doctor yelled back, shoving his brother with his arm before resuming doing up his shirt, his head down and eyes closed, breathing rapidly.

“I’m sorry, calm down, I was trying to help…”

“Don’t you  _ dare _ tell me to  _ calm down!”  _ the Doctor spat, visibly trembling but managing to hold himself together. 

“I was just …”

“Just what, Brax!?” the Doctor spat.

Brax stopped, his jaw opening and closing like a fish. He didn’t have an answer for his brother.

“Doctor,” Sarah began instead, stepping forward.

“Nobody talk to me!” the Doctor yelled and rapidly disappeared out of the door. Martha made to follow, but Sarah quickly stopped her.

“No,” she said gently.

* * *

The Doctor moved through the corridors of the TARDIS, absolutely furious. The fire in his blood was as prominent as ever, building and building until he got to the corridor outside Leah’s room and finally stopped, leaning on the wall, clutching his stomach and breathing deeply to calm himself down. He felt like throwing up.

His own brother had told his wife exactly how to find Alex. Brax had  _ known  _ she was unhappy and liable to drastic action, yet Brax hadn’t felt the need to tell him?

It wasn’t like he wanted to keep her in the dark all the time - she wasn’t wrapped up in cotton wool. They were equals, and if Brax had told him then he and Rose could have talked about it, and perhaps even instigated it together. But now she was gone, walked right into the clutches of the powerful entity that was running the operation. She was in serious danger like never before. She could be dead very soon; her little delicate human life wiped out prematurely by a stupid mistake.

He could even reason it as his fault. He’d known Rose’s feelings too, he’d known she might have been unhappy enough to launch into action. But he’d done nothing. Their little one-year-old boy - weak, ill and barely spoke a word - made by love, made by  _ them,  _ stolen under their noses and what had he done about it?

_ Nothing. _

He let out a yell of pure frustration, slamming his head and his fist against the wall. The TARDIS shuddered beneath his violent touch, but he didn’t care. In fact, he hit it again. He pummelled the walls with his fists repeatedly, releasing yells of pure primal frustration and anger at the situation in a paroxysm of anger.

“Daddy?”

He spun around immediately, coming face to face with his four-year-old girl standing there in her pyjamas, rubbing at her eyes, looking at him with a little apprehension.

All of his anger evaporated immediately as he dropped to his knees, pulling her into an abrupt hug.

“Leah,” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

“Yeah,” she said quietly, her face buried in his shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” he said again, not letting go of her. “I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

“Course,” she said, rolling her eyes a little. “You only tell me about ten times a day.”

“That’s not enough,” he declared, finally pulling back and gazing at her beautiful face. His eyes - gazing at him studiously. Rose’s nose - defined and perfectly placed. His teeth. Her lips. His hair. Her ears. His smile. Her jaw. His chin. 

He pushed back her hair from her eyes, and kissed her again. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “... Please don’t die.”

“I’m not gonna die,” he said seriously. “I’m too busy to die.”

She giggled, but her eyes were beginning to well.

“Don’t cry,” he said seriously. “This is just a rough patch. We’ll be through it soon. We’ll get Alex, Luke and Uncle Jack back and everything will be okay, yes?”

She didn’t reply, just staring at him.

“Yes?” he prompted.

“Yes,” she replied dully.

“Now say that again like you mean it?”

“Daddy,” she wailed, giggling again.

“Oh, come on, I need you on my side,” he said. “Raise your hand. Now.”

Leah rolled her eyes at him, but raised her hand as instructed.

“Now repeat after me. I, Leah Tyler …”

“I, Leah Tyler …” she repeated, sniffing.

“Know that you, Daddy …”

“Know that you, Daddy …”

“Are going to get better, and that everything’s going to be okay.”

“Are gonna get better, that everything’s gonna be okay.”

“Good girl,” he said, beaming.

“Good girl,” she repeated, matching his grin.

“No, no, not that bit,” he said, laughing before hugging her again.

“Okay,” she said, sniffing again as she hugged him in return, just as tightly.

“Now go back to bed. You know full well it’s law in this family that seven thirty isn’t an acceptable time to be awake.”

She giggled again. “Okay,” she said, turned, and went back to her room.

The Doctor spun on his heel, and went to the console room. The moment he entered the door his chest suddenly started to vibrate and he frowned, pulling out his phone from his inside jacket pocket. He kept forgetting he had one.

**Rose**

**Accept/Decline**

His eyes widened, and he quickly hit accept, holding it to his ear.

“Rose!?”

_ “Doctor?” _

“Rose, what are you  _ doing?” _

She seemed to ignore the question.  _ “Are you okay?” _

“Answer the question!” he demanded.

_ “Please calm down.” _

“How can I  _ calm down!?  _ Where are you? Have you gone after Alex?”

_ “Look … I traced the biosignatures. Brax didn’t know what he was doin’, it’s not his fault, I manipulated him a bit. Please don’t be mad at him.” _

“When did you even check them?”

_ “Yesterday afternoon, just before you collapsed. I found out … look, I was gonna tell you, but then Clint died.” _

“What?”

_ “His murder, it was warnin’ me, Doctor. That message was for me. I couldn’t tell anyone. Are you okay?” _

“Please tell me where you are …”

_ “I can’t, they’ll know, Doctor. They killed Clint five minutes after I looked at the biorhythms. They know I know where they are. If I told anyone next time it could be Alex, yeah? Are you okay?” _

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair, agitated, but forced himself to calm down. “Look, sorry. I’m fine. And I’m sorry we argued, but  _ please  _ don’t do this. We can do this together. I’m sorry we didn’t do anything, but  _ please  _ don’t do this on your own.”

_ “I’m not mad at you for not doin’ anythin’, yeah? I wasn’t leavin’ you, I love you. I just had to get away when no one would notice.” _

“Please come back,” he whined.

_ “It’s too late.” _

“Okay, I’ll follow.”

_ “No!”  _ Rose cried quickly.  _ “They’ll kill them if you do anythin’, they’ve got eyes on us, Doctor.” _

“I can’t let you do this…”

_ “Trust me, please,”  _ Rose begged. 

“Oh god,” the Doctor muttered, dropping to sit on the console chair as his legs were beginning to go numb.

_ “Stay calm, you’ve gotta stay calm.” _

There was a very long pause. “... How?” he finally croaked.

_ “I’ll be fine, yeah?” _

“Please come back. Don’t be brave and stupid.”

She seemed to ignore him.  _ “Promise you won’t follow me.” _

“I can’t promise that.”

_ “Promise me right now.” _

“They’ll kill you, Rose!” the Doctor exclaimed, exasperated. 

_ “Don’t you trust me?” _

“Of course I do,” he whined.

_ “Then trust me, I’m gonna be fine. Think I’ve learnt a thing or two about survivin’.” _

The Doctor took another long pause, swallowing as he searched the console room floor as if it would give him an answer. It didn’t. “Okay,” he finally croaked, barely audible.

_ “Promise?” _

“... Promise.”

_ “Thank you. I’ll call you later if I can, yeah?” _

“... Okay.”

_ “I love you. Bye.” _

“I love you too.”

She hung up.

He stared at the phone for a moment, incredibly tempted to throw it hard against the wall so it fractured into a million pieces. He managed to resist it, instead dropping it onto the floor and leaning forward, his head in his hands. 

“Thete?”

The Doctor didn’t even look up. “What?” he asked dully.

“Are you okay?”

The Doctor looked up at his brother, standing there awkwardly. That didn’t even deserve an answer, so he ignored the question and dropped his head back into his hands.

Brax let go a little laugh. “Sorry, yes, idiotic question,” he said, moving forward to sit down beside his brother.

Silence reigned for a moment.

“... Rose just called me,” the Doctor finally said.

“I know,” Brax admitted, embarrassed. “I was in the doorway.”

Another long silence.

“Sorry,” the Doctor finally said, looking up at him again. “It’s not your fault. You were just trying to help. Rose just outsmarted you.”

“I know,” Brax repeated. “She’s far too clever for me.”

The Doctor was too distracted to even laugh at that. “How can I do nothing?” he moaned. 

“She was most likely asking the same question of you for weeks,” Brax pointed out.

“I know,” the Doctor whined. “It was bad enough losing Alex but now she’s gone and I …” He paused, swallowing. “... At least I knew Alex was still alive, and being kept alive for a reason. But Rose? She’s expendable, Brax. And it’s going to make them angry. If I lost them both ...”

He trailed off. He didn’t need to finish that sentence.

“Let’s be reasonable,” Brax said honestly. “How much longer would you have waited for Alex?”

The Doctor paused. “... I don’t know,” he finally moaned. “Probably not long.”

“A plan is in action, now,” Brax told him. “It may not be the plan you would have liked but it’s still a plan. You need to start using this to your advantage. I may not know you well but I know you well enough to be positive that you can use this.”

“So she’s walking to her death and I’m supposed to let her for the sake of a plan that doesn’t exist yet?”

“From what I’ve seen of her, she is very adept at handling herself. You being angry isn’t going to help anyone.”

The Doctor sighed. “I know,” he muttered, and got up. “I need to think.”

Brax nodded. “We will give you space. Just don’t act in haste.”

The Doctor shook his head, took a breath, and looked directly at his brother. “Brax, I need some Maghmar.”

“No, you don’t,” Brax replied shortly.

“It helps me think. It takes away the headaches,” the Doctor insisted.

“You don’t need any. You had some a few days ago.”

“I  _ need  _ it, please, Brax,” he begged.

“No.”

The Doctor’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Give some to me,” he grated.

Brax stood up, staring down his brother. “No,” he repeated confidently.

The Doctor dived forward, grabbing his shoulders. “Just a little bit. A little tiny bit,” he begged again, staring hard into his brother’s eyes.

Brax pushed the Doctor’s hands away. “No. You need to fight this, Theta.”

“I need it!”

“Thete …”

The Doctor suddenly launched out a fist, hitting his brother in the side of the face. Brax yelled and hit the floor immediately.

The Doctor stopped being angry instantly, staring at Brax on the floor in utter horror. He raised his hand to his face, staring, transfixed at the sight of his own knuckles. He looked down at Brax again, out cold on the floor by  _ his  _ hand.

He stood there, utterly rooted to the spot before Brax came around, blinking rapidly up at his brother.

“Thete?” he asked quietly.

The Doctor turned and ran out of the room. 

“Thete!” he heard Brax’s voice echo after him, but he wasn’t paying attention. He got to the corridor, and nearly ran into Leah crossing to the kitchen.

She saw him and smiled. “Daddy, I can’t sleep. Can we watch cartoons? I can’t find mummy.”

The Doctor immediately backed up against the wall, pinning his hands behind his back so hard it hurt as he stared at her, feeling his blood pressure starting to rise with pure panic. If he could hit Brax so easily ...

“No, go and play with Sarah,” he said quickly, sidestepping away from her.

“But Daddy …”

“Go and play with Sarah!” he yelled and ran into his and Rose’s bedroom, locking the door behind him. He dropped his head onto it, eyes closed, breathing heavily to try and stop the building pain he could feel in his limbs. His face was wet, and it took a few moments for him to realise he was crying. Why was he crying?

This was pathetic. He couldn’t let this carry on. Brax was right. Rose had just instigated a plan and being angry at the situation wasn’t going to help anyone, least of all Jack, Alex, Luke and Rose. He needed to retain some sense of normality and move forward with a calm, clear mind.

He stood up to full height, wiping at his eyes before taking a deep, affirming breath and moving to the TV on the wall. He turned it on, where the morning news was on. Rose had always put it on when they were getting up. 

He quickly got undressed, and stepped into the bathroom for a shower. He left the door open as he’d been doing since Volag-Noc. She’d insisted on it, just in case something happened. He’d found it an invasion of privacy to begin with, but eventually he’d relented. She had a point. 

He had his shower, dried off, had a shave and got dressed into his usual attire, before moving to the mirror. He barely recognised his own reflection. He looked awful. His entire face seemed to be ashen and there were dark marks under his red-rimmed eyes. Even they seemed to have a dead gaze. His cheeks were hollowed - he could almost see his skeleton. It was the Maghmar, he knew that. It was starting to destroy his body.

So  _ why  _ was he desperate for more?

He shook his head, trying to bat away the thoughts, but ended up regretting it as his headache seemed to bounce from side to side in his head. He blinked a few times to straighten out his vision, and then grabbed his hair gel.

Other days he might have taken thirty seconds, but today he took a particularly long time. He twisted, flicked and adjusted his hair until it was absolutely perfect before he drew back, satisfied with the result. He then tidied the table and dropped back down onto the bed, hands behind his head, staring up at the TV.

“Thete?” Braxiatel’s voice came from the other side of the door.

The Doctor swallowed, his eyes snapping to the door. Maybe he’d go away.

“Thete, it’s okay, I’m not angry.”

The Doctor didn’t answer.

“This is my fault. I gave you this addiction. I knew this would happen. Don’t feel guilty.”

The Doctor opened his mouth, thinking of replying, but he couldn’t think of the right words. He closed it again.

“We’re okay, yes?”

He still didn’t have any words.

“Thete?”

The Doctor opened his mouth again, and this time some words came out. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Have some thinking time. We’ll look after Leah and Kiana.”

Footsteps moved away from the door.

The Doctor turned over on the bed, curling into himself. There was Rose’s side. It smelt like her.

_ “Help me, please!” _

The Doctor barely registered the TV, just staring at the space where Rose should have been.

_ “Doctor, please!” _

That made him sit up, looking at the TV. The screen was in white noise.

_ “Help me, Doctor!” _

“Hello?” he asked quickly. “Rose!?”

_ “This is all my fault, it’s all my fault!” _

The voice was distorted, but it definitely wasn’t Rose’s. If he had to guess, he’d say it sounded quite a lot like … the Master. “Can you hear me?”

_ “Please don’t let him do this!” _

“Do what!? Who’s ‘him’?”

_ “Doctor! No …. No … Doctor! Please, please, please save me…” _

“You can’t hear me,” the Doctor realised, standing up now and staring at the TV. His sonic was out, pointing at the screen, but nothing seemed to be happening. 

_ “Him, him, always him, he’s there, he’s watching, he knows I’m calling you, he knows … he always knows … argh!” _

The scream of pain seemed to pierce the Doctor’s eardrums. He tried changing settings on the sonic.

_ “Run Doctor, Run! He’s coming, he knows I’ve talked to you, he’s coming!” _

“What!? Master!?”

_ “He’ll kill all of you! Run!!!” _

The TV died suddenly, leaving an eerie silence in the room.

He frowned, pocketing the sonic and running out of the door. The way was clear as he ran down the corridor, into the console room and through the TARDIS door into the Hub. Everyone turned to look at him, surprised.

He stopped dead, just listening.

“Doctor, what …” Martha began.

“Shush!” he implored, a finger in the air. He could hear the faint sound of something outside.

He ran to Mickey’s desk, pushing the man aside and punching up a view of the exterior. Helicopters, spotlights, and men with guns breaking through the crowds of people camped above their heads.

“Holy shit,” Mickey swore, snapping his head around to stare at him. “Are they comin’ for us?”

The Doctor swallowed. “... Yeah. They’re coming to kill us.”


	14. 11th June 2013, 09:01:13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the threat rises, the Doctor is given an ultimatum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should warn, it's all about to get veeeeery dark ...

Everyone but Leah, Tony, Kiana, and Ianto gathered in the Hub, staring in utter horror at what was happening on the monitor. The armed soldiers were pushing the public back, clearing a path through to the shop entrance to the Hub. There had been some gunfire, ambulances and police cars were beginning to arrive. Any hope they had of the police preventing the soldiers was quickly disproved when the police joined in pushing back the public. Even the police were against them.

“They can’t get in here,” Martha said quickly. “They can try all they like. This place is reinforced enough for three perpetual nuclear wars.”

“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed, scanning the ceiling. “Safe as reinforced houses.”

Mickey’s monitor suddenly buzzed loudly, drawing all their attention. Almost immediately a man appeared - thin and scrawny, in his early twenties, with bright red hair - sitting at a bank of computer terminals, smiling down the camera.

“Oh my God,” the Doctor whispered, staring in utter shock at the man. “It’s him.”

“Who?” Martha asked quickly.

“Thete? Do you know him?” Brax prompted.

The Doctor swallowed, looking around at them all. “... This is going to sound mad, but it’s Toby … my hairdresser from Aylesbury.”

Everyone looked at him, utterly dumbfounded.

“You’re kiddin’,” Mickey muttered.

“Nope,” the Doctor replied, popping his ‘p’.

_ “Good to see you again, Doctor,”  _ Toby said, cutting off any conversation that may have followed.  _ “We haven’t seen you down the salon for a while.” _

“Yeah, um, Rose was getting fed up with me making a scene so she started cutting it,” the Doctor admitted, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

“No, sorry,” Martha interrupted suddenly with her hands in the air, staring at the pinstriped Time Lord. “He’s your  _ hairdresser?”  _ she asked seriously, pointing at the man on the screen.

“Yeah …” the Doctor murmured.

_ “Funny who turns out to be your worst enemy, isn’t it?”  _ Toby said, still smiling broadly. 

“Wait, no,” the Doctor said, moving forward to stand directly in front of the monitor, leaning forward on the desk. “ _ You’re _ my worst enemy?”

“I’m so confused,” Mickey moaned.

“Don’t tell us you owe him money,” Rhys said seriously, frowning.

_ “I’m getting very bored,”  _ Toby said seriously.

“Sorry,” the Doctor replied insincerely. “But how are-”

_ “Oh, details later, Doctor,”  _ Toby interrupted smoothly. _ “The first thing you should be worrying about is where oh where is Rosey-poo?” _

The Doctor’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “What have you done to her?”

_ “That’s for me to know and you to find out,”  _ Toby informed him, smiling away. _ “Oh, and by the way, I’ve got a hundred and four soldiers standing outside your front door right now. They’ve got seventy-five fully loaded automatic AK-47s, ten shotguns, twelve snipers, seven pistols and several explosives, and they’re willing to work through the night to break open your secret underground base. You can deadlock the building as much as you like, your little hiding place isn’t indestructible. It’ll take time, yes, but we will get through.” _

The Doctor stared at him. He could feel everyone else’s eyes on the back of his head. “If you know that, then you also know I have a Tardis. We’re not exactly trapped.”

_ “No, which is why it’s called the  _ carrot  _ and the whip. I’ve got a proposal. Come out. Just come out, Theta Sigma. Come to me, just you on your own. Let’s have a nice long lovely chat about things. You’ll be able to see how your wife, son and friends are, too. If you do that, I’ll leave everyone else alone. That’s everyone - all of your friends, Gwen the ex-policewoman with her husband Rhys, their little baby daughter Anwen, Martha the UNIT freelancer and her husband, dimension jumping ex-boyfriend Mickey Smith. Sarah the ex-companion, Jackie, the mother-in-law and Tony, your little brother-in-law. Poor, bullet-riddled Ianto lying in the infirmary. Your half-brother, on your father’s side of course, Braxiatel. Little adopted Kiana. Even little Peppa Pig-loving Leah Penelope Tyler.” _

“How can you know all this?” the Doctor grated in a question.

_ “Let’s just say I’ve been watching you for a very long time, Doctor,”  _ Toby continued, persisting with his unbroken smile.  _ “Now, are you gonna come out?” _

“You guarantee that everyone else will be left alone?” 

_ “Of course.” _

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

Toby didn’t lose his smile.  _ “You don’t. And of course, if you don’t accept my offer and I hear one millisecond of those creaky Tardis engines anywhere near me then somebody very important to you is going to die a very quick and painful death.” _

“Let me think.”

_ “Of course,”  _ Toby replied. He was still smiling.  _ “One minute.” _

The image disappeared. the Doctor quickly checked any audio links, but Toby was truly gone.

“Thete,” Brax said quickly, hand on his shoulder to pull him around to face him. “Don’t say you’re considering it.”

“I’m not considering it,” the Doctor replied immediately. “I’ve already decided. I’m going.”

Everyone gasped.

“You’re bloody mad!” Jackie cried.

“Don’t be stupid,” Gwen breathed.

“He knows everything about us - how?” Martha queried. “This is dangerous, Doctor.”

“Since when has dangerous ever been a problem around here?” the Doctor asked seriously. Nobody had an answer for him, so he continued. “Look, he’s got four people that are very important to me and if I go with him he’s going to take me right to them. At least I’ll be able to see they’re okay, and I can start working on a plan to get them all out of there.”

“This is madness, Thete,” Brax said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I have to, Brax. I’ve got to try. If we run, he’s going to kill one of them. Maybe more.”

“He could be bluffin’,” Mickey pointed out.

“I’m not prepared to risk that.”

“Do what you need to do,” Sarah suddenly said, and everyone looked at her. She stepped forward. “I’ve seen enough of him to know Luke is in serious danger. He’s a madman. A clever madman. They’re the most dangerous kind.”

“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed. “Look, I’ll be fine. I’ll get inside, get them out and bring them back. He might know everything about us, he might have all his guns, but that doesn’t make him more dangerous. Just more prone to volatile decisions.”

“How can he know us so well, though?” Martha asked desperately. “I didn’t even know Leah  _ had  _ a middle name.”

“Jack does,” the Doctor pointed out.

“So Jack’s told him?”

“He could be doing anything to Jack. And Jack would give him what he wanted to keep the others safe.”

“That isn’t happening,” Brax snapped, his eyes narrowing.

“If there was any other way I’d take it,” the Doctor told him. “But there isn’t.”

There was a brief pause before Martha nodded, moving forward to hug him awkwardly over her now massive belly. “Be careful.”

“We’re all behind you,” Gwen told him, Rhys nodding beside her.

“Me too,” Sarah added, hugging him too.

“Me three,” Mickey concurred.

“You’re bloody mad but I trust you,” Jackie completed, hugging him too.

Everyone looked at Braxiatel who was standing there, his arms folded, his gaze fixed to the floor.

“Brax?” the Doctor prompted.

Brax didn’t say anything. He simply reached inside his jacket and pulled out the bottle of Maghmar. Instantly the Doctor felt himself salivate at the mere prospect of consuming it, but he suppressed it, his hearts sinking at his primitive reaction.

Brax carefully poured a capful of the medicine, and held it to his brother. “One for the road,” he said quietly.

The Doctor nodded, took it, and downed it all in one. He then silently handed the cap back.

Suddenly the screen came back on to reveal Toby, smiling as he usually did.  _ “Answer?” _

The Doctor turned to the monitor, standing up straight. “I’m coming.”

_ “Good decision. Come out, no weapons - that includes your sonic screwdriver - with your hands in the air.” _

“I’ll be right out,” the Doctor said, and turned Toby off. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and placed it on the desk before turning to the others.

“Nobody follow me. I’ll find a way to get a message to you.”

“Good luck,” Gwen said quietly.

“Thanks,” he responded, and left.

* * *

The Doctor stepped out of the shop door, and immediately came face to face with a line of armour-clad soldiers, all pointing their guns at him. He stuck his arms in the air.

“Lie down on the ground!” one demanded. He obeyed, dropping to lie face down on the ground. Immediately two advanced, grabbing his arms and wrenched them behind his back before the handcuffs went on.

Around him he could hear the crowds of people, probably being held back on the Plass as the two soldiers hauled him to his feet. One stuck a gun in his back, and shouted at him to move. Without a word, he started walking forwards, and immediately found himself walled in by soldiers, all training their guns on him.

“What do you think I’m gonna do? Explode?” he asked seriously, but no one listened nor cared. They simply marched him up to the Plass, where indeed the public had gathered. The Doctor caught sight of a few of them - slightly taken aback at the ferocious hatred etched on their faces. 

“Go back to your planet, alien fuck!” one yelled, and threw something which didn’t quite reach him. More strangers hurled abuse, spit, and objects, a couple of stones managing to catch his head slightly. There were seemingly hundreds of photographers and news crews; cameras trying to break the wall of soldiers to get a good shot but they were held back. The abuse became more and more vulgar as he walked silently towards their destination. 

He passed by the police next, all lined up staring at the twisted, medieval procession. In amongst the faces he spotted Andy, and quickly looked directly at him.

“Andy!” he called.

Andy looked stunned for a moment, before his face dropped as he realised it was the Doctor calling him. His eyes held an incredible sadness.

“It knows your name! Do you know it?” the Doctor heard one of Andy’s colleagues ask him.

“No, I think it reads mind,” he heard Andy reply. Any further eye contact with him was lost as the gun shoved into the Doctor’s back again, forcing him onwards.

This planet suddenly seemed so incredibly alien like it had never before.

They reached a plain black van. Two soldiers opened the back doors before one opened the cage door inside. He was uncuffed but held firm with heavy hands, so heavy in fact he was sure he would bruise. 

“Hey, be gentle, I’m delicate,” he said, but they ignored him. His coat was removed, jacket was pulled off, his shoes were wrenched from his feet and he was patted down so vigorously his shirt and tie gained a suitably distressed look.

“Can I get those back later?” the Doctor asked seriously, looking at the man holding his shoes, jacket and coat. He continued to be ignored as four soldiers forced him into the van. The view to the driver was blocked by a big black block of wood, protected by iron bars. The entirety of the back of the van was lined with iron bars and even the floor was metal grating.

In the corner was a set of heavy manacles for hands and feet. The Doctor had no doubts that this was his destination and his suspicions were quickly confirmed. His hands and feet were fixed, and for some reason a strangely well-fitted oxygen mask that was completely sealed up and almost moulded for his face was put over his mouth and nose.

The soldiers left, the shutting back doors putting him in complete blackness. He heard chains fix on the door outside. He was very well contained. They were clearly absolutely  _ terrified  _ of him.

He could still hear the screams of the angry crowd outside, pelting the van with more rocks. It was strangely relieving when the engine was started and they were muted. Thankfully a light came on as the engine started, and he finally took the time to look around - more notably, at an iPad secured a metre in front of his face. The moment he looked at it, Toby’s face appeared.

_ “Sorry for all the metal and stuff, but I don’t trust them to keep you, frankly. If you’ll bear with me, we need to clear the area.” _

The iPad switched off along with the lights, and the van began to move.

* * *

Everyone stood watching the monitors which showed the CCTV to the exterior. They watched as the Doctor was escorted through the Plass, stones being thrown at him from all directions by their fellow humans until he was finally stripped of his jacket, coat and shoes and bundled into the back of the van. He was finally driven away, people still hurling rocks at the van.

“Oh God,” Jackie suddenly whined, head in her hands. 

“We shouldn’t have let him do that,” Martha croaked.

“He’ll be fine. He’s the Doctor,” Mickey reasoned.

They continued to stare at the monitor as the crowd chatted amongst each other. The Doctor’s clothes were in a lump in the middle of the Plass.

“I’m gonna get his things,” Martha suddenly announced, but Rhys held up a hand.

“Nope, you stay right here.”

“But…”

“You’re about to drop a baby,” Rhys pointed out. “I don’t think you should be walking through angry mobs.”

“Well you're not much better, you big lump,” Gwen said, and at her words finally everyone remembered what it was like to smile. 

“Oi!” Rhys laughed.

“I’ll go,” Gwen continued, smiling.

“You’ve been on TV with him, Gwen,” Mickey pointed out. “I’ll go.”

And without hearing a word of protest Mickey went to the lift and ascended.

* * *

Mickey broke the ground, his eyes searching the Plass for a route through to the Doctor’s clothes. He managed to pick one out and began to make his way through, gently pushing people aside and praying he wouldn’t be confronted. He finally got to the clothes and picked them up, bunching them together and starting off again, slightly quicker, through the crowd.

People were mingling by the lift. There was no way he could use it without being noticed, so he turned and made his way down to the shop entrance.

The soldiers were gone. He walked freely into the shop, hitting the bell. Almost immediately Gwen appeared and together they walked back into the Hub.

“Got ‘em,” Mickey announced, giving the clothes to Brax. “So what do we do now?”

“Wait for him to signal us I guess,” Martha supposed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “We can’t …”

“No!” Brax suddenly yelped, and ran right past them and straight into the TARDIS, quicker than a flash. The others barely had a chance to comprehend this before the Hub door blew wide open, nearly flattening Gwen in its path.

“What!?” Jackie gasped, but before Torchwood could get any form of defence they were absolutely flooded with soldiers.

“Get down on the ground!” they ordered.

* * *

It had been ten minutes and nineteen seconds since the van had started driving, the Doctor knew. Being in the dark with restricted movement was heightening his other senses - his time sense in particular, with each second trickling by as fast as sand in a clogged egg timer. He was beginning to get very cold, not to mention the apprehension of why he had an oxygen mask on his face that was giving him steady amounts of oxygen. Surely the van wasn’t airless? That was physically impossible. 

Suddenly the van came to a stop, and the light switched back on along with the iPad.

“ _ Still with me? Good,”  _ Toby said. The sight of his steadfast smile with beginning to aggravate the Doctor.  _ “This bit you’ll love.” _

Then Toby was gone from the iPad screen, replaced by an urban landscape. It took the Doctor a few moments to recognise it. The Plass.

“What are you doing?” the Doctor asked, but his voice was deadened behind the mask.

_ “Pardon? You’re a bit muffled. Oh, you want to know why I’m showing you that, don’t you? Well, here’s what’s inside.” _

The Plass disappeared, replaced by a camera phone picture of the inside of Torchwood. The Doctor stared, absolutely stunned at the sight of Gwen, Rhys, Jackie, Sarah and Martha all tied up and sat on the floor.

“You promised me they’d be safe!” the Doctor shouted, but even he couldn’t make out his own words.

_ “Eh? Oh, never mind,”  _ Toby turned his attentions away from the Doctor, looking somewhere else. _ “Blow it up, Commander.” _

“No!” the Doctor yelled, staring transfixed at the screen as the picture went back to the Plass …

_ “Detonating in ten, nine …”  _ the Captain’s voice came through the iPad.

“You can’t do this!” the Doctor yelled over him.

_ “Eight …” _

“Just think!”

_ “Seven, six …” _

“Just stop!”

_ “Five …” _

“I’ll do anything!”

_ “Four …” _

“I’ll give you whatever you want!”

_ “Three …” _

“Please, Toby!”

_ “Two …” _

“This is wrong!”

_ “One …” _

“No!”

The Doctor heard a faint resounding sound from outside of the van, something in the distance, as on screen he watched in horror as the Plass exploded.

The camera whited out for a few seconds before returning, everything obscured by smoke. He waited for it to clear, seconds feeling like hours until it finally dispersed enough to reveal a giant hole in the middle of Roald Dahl Plass, singed metal, scattered debris, huge fires and…

Blood.

“No,” the Doctor whispered. His eyes were stinging, tears desperate to fall, but he couldn’t let them. He knew Leah was still alive, inside the TARDIS probably under the debris, he could feel her, but for how long? Her, Tony, Kiana and an injured Ianto were now alone inside it, and  _ completely  _ vulnerable…

His human family, the only ones who had stood by him in this utter mess as the remainder of the world screamed for his blood were now dead. Blown apart in the most horrific death possible.

He then stopped being sad, started to become extremely angry. The fire began in his veins, but now he didn’t care. Toby would _ pay  _ for this.

The light-headedness came, then the feeling of wanting to throw up, the stiffening. He pushed it all out of his mind, focusing on his manacles …

Suddenly he was tired. His eyelids started drooping but he forced them open, absolutely bewildered at how that had happened. He took in a deep breath, and immediately nearly fainted on the spot. It was only then he realised what the oxygen mask for - because it wasn’t an oxygen mask. It was completely sealed up for a very good reason. It was now pumping gas straight into his lungs. He tried desperately to move his hands enough to take it off but the manacles were too heavy for his tired limbs. He tried ducking his head to push it off with his elbow but he ended up just flopping onto his back, unable to gather enough strength to even raise his head.

_ “Good night, Doctor.” _

Everything very quickly lapsed into darkness.


	15. 22nd May 2013, 06:56:40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor is taken into captivity by Toby.

The Doctor woke up, his arms feeling like they were going to tear off at the shoulders with his wrists completely numb. His neck was aching badly, and he could barely breathe. Apart from that, he seemed to be fairly intact.

He blinked open his eyes, only to realise that the reason his arms were hurting was because they were hanging from the ceiling. He tried to get a footing but very quickly found his feet only just about scraped the floor. He tried to look down but he had something heavy around his neck that restricted his movement, and the mask was back on his face.

He was in a cold, darkened room made of stone - definitely an old building of sorts. Possibly the dungeon of a castle. But he didn’t get much more time to think about it before Toby’s voice interrupted.

_ “Welcome back.” _

He looked up drowsily, only just managing to focus on an iPad, sitting upright on a small table directly in front of him. Toby sat there with his bank of computers and his stupid smile.

“You killed them!” he yelled, grunting as an even sharper pain shot through his arms.

_ “Sorry? Can’t hear you,”  _ Toby responded. 

“I  _ know  _ you can hear me!” the Doctor snapped.

_ “Oh, fair enough,”  _ Toby said, shrugging with a ‘got me’ look on his face.  _ “How are you? Are you hungry?” _

“Don’t mess around with me!”

Toby rolled his eyes, leant to a computer, and pressed something. Immediately the Doctor felt pure pain burst out from his neck as the sound of electricity burst into his eardrums. The pain immediately consumed his entire body and he let out a scream of agony, spasming relentlessly in his chains. Almost immediately the fire started in his blood, which within seconds had climaxed. His entire body stiffened, more pain shot through his chest and before he could suffer any further his hearts froze in his chest and he died on the spot.

* * *

_ “Wow, you died on me, Doctor.” _

The Doctor blinked open his eyes again, pain coursing through him. Everything was blurry, and somehow he couldn’t really seem to think properly. But he could think enough to know that he was still in  _ that place. _ There was a man in front of him holding a pair of defibrillators, and now when he sucked in breath he was getting a good lungful of oxygen from the mask.

His eyes drifted to the man in front of him. He had a red UNIT beret.

“You’re Unit,” the Doctor realised, wide-eyed.

The UNIT man didn’t say anything, just standing there, staring at him.

“What … did you … do?” he gasped to Toby, his head pounding.

_ “That thing around your neck? Seems I set it a bit too high for your terminally ill body. My bad. How are you feeling?” _

“Where are J-Jack, Alex … Luke and … R-Rose?”

_ “That’s rude. I asked first. How are you feeling?” _

The Doctor gritted his teeth. “Dandy, th-thanks. Where are … they?”

_ “Well, if you’re feeling dandy, you won’t be needing that oxygen anymore.” _

Toby reached for his computer again, and the next time the Doctor attempted to draw in breath it was extremely minimal. He coughed as a result, which jerked his body again and shot more pain up through his arms.

“I’m s-sorry,” he gasped.

_ “What’s that?” _

“I’m ... sorry.”

_ “That’s better.”  _ Toby pressed a button, and the oxygen came back.  _ “You need to earn the right to breathe.” _

“It’s all y-you, isn’t it?” the Doctor asked, managing to get his head a little clearer and his lungs a little more filled. “You’ve m-made the Earth hate me.”

_ “Yep.” _

“Why?”

_ “Well, that’s the question isn’t it? Look at me.” _

The Doctor did, managing to raise his head to properly look at the man.

_ “You have no idea who I am, do you?”  _ Toby said, leaning into the camera.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Apart fr-from a hairdresser?”

Toby hit the button, and the electric hit the Doctor again, with a less power than last time. He heard the sound far more clearly than before. A bzzz. This time he managed to bear it, and the infection in his blood only just about stayed dormant.

_ “Try again.” _

“I ... don’t know.”

_ “Not even a guess?” _

“No.”

_ “That’s why,”  _ Toby grated, and hit the button. The collar activated again, and this time didn’t relent for quite a while. By the time it was done, the Doctor was hanging limply in his chains, barely able to lift his head.  _ “I hate you. You ruined my life. You saunter on with that stupid grin, forgetting those you’ve left behind in all the dust. And you still have no idea who I am.” _

“Then tell me. Let me help.”

_ “Oh no. I want to see you cry when you realise.” _

The Doctor swallowed. He really could not recognise that face beyond his hairdresser. So he decided to change the subject to something he could  _ really  _ get angry about. “... You killed them.”

_ “You mean Torchwood? Yeah, looked convincing, didn’t it?” _

The Doctor could barely focus. “What?”

_ “Your brother. Dashed off in the Tardis, came back just before the explosion, scattered some blood bags around and got everyone in the Tardis. They were out long before I detonated. I just did that to annoy you.” _

The Doctor thought about that for a moment. Now he was thinking about it, he could feel Brax, still alive, as a distant presence hovering on the edge of his head. And Brax hadn’t been in the photo. “How c-can you know th-that…?”

_ “Freaky, isn’t it? I know everything about you, Theta Sigma, yet you don’t know anything about me. It’s actually quite tragic, you know. I even know your future. Would you like to know what happens to you next?” _

“No.”

Bzzz!

Toby waited patiently for the Doctor to recover from the electrocution.  _ “Try again.” _

His body was now utterly wrecked and wracked with pain. He could feel his shirt dampening with sweat. And he quickly decided not to care. “Still n-no,” the Doctor stammered out, despite how much his body cursed him for it.

Bzzz!

_ “You’re beginning to annoy me, Doctor. Say good bye to your oxygen.” _

Instantly all of the oxygen was sucked out of his mask. He coughed immediately, jolting his body again. More raw pain coursed up through his arms, and he was convinced they were now broken or dislocated at the very least.

_ “And again?”  _ Toby prompted.

The Doctor knew without oxygen in his cells the alere flamman would take over very quickly. He needed oxygen. “Y-yes …” he gasped, and the oxygen quickly came back.

_ “My future self brought you back to the past. The date is the 22nd May, at precisely 7am.” _

“The d-day they were a-abducted,” the Doctor realised.

_ “Precisely. The abductees are about to arrive here in a couple of minutes. I thought that was funny. You spent all that time wondering where they were, and you were actually here all the time. You’ll spend the next three weeks here under my control, then on the 11th June your brother and the others will break in here and release you…” _

“No, please, I can’t-”

Bzzz!

_ “You’ll be forced to go into hiding together,”  _ Toby continued, ignoring his writhing body. _ “Until on the 3rd of July you will be shot by Captain Jack Harkness…”  _

“You can’t-”

Bzzz!

_ “You regenerate shortly afterwards. And me? I die. You’re going to murder me. But I’ll have a nice new body to slip into.” _

“You’re l-lying…” the Doctor moaned out, struggling to even shape his mouth to form words, now.

_ “Am I?”  _ Toby wondered, still smiling.  _ “That’s your problem, Doctor. I’m just trying to help, just so you know there is something to look forward to. Oh … sorry. You can’t think straight, can you? Maybe you’re tired. Get some sleep.” _

The iPad switched off, and the Doctor looked at the UNIT medic again. “Help me,” he begged. “He’s torturing me.”

The UNIT man said nothing as the mask on the Doctor’s face immediately flooded with sleeping gas, and the Doctor could do nothing but submit to it.

* * *

“Doctor! Doctor!”

The Doctor woke up, feeling even worse than when he went to sleep. He blinked open heavy eyes, and saw Jack’s panicked face. Jack reached up and pulled off the mask.

“Luke, grab his legs,” Jack ordered, and the Doctor immediately felt a pair of arms wrap around his calves as Luke lifted him a little to ease the pressure on his arms. After a moment’s protest his arms coursed through with a feeling of utter relief at not taking almost his entire body weight. Not that they stopped hurting.

“Jack,” the Doctor grunted, blinking rapidly. “Where’s Alex?”

Jack suddenly bent down, and picked up the boy. There he was, crying his little heart out.

“Alex, it’s okay,” the Doctor said quickly. “We’ll sort this.”

“What the hell happened?” Jack asked seriously, putting Alex down again but keeping his hand firmly in the boy’s. “You were in Torchwood … We’ve only just got here. You can’t be here already.”

“I’m from the future,” the Doctor replied quickly. “He’s brought me back in time.”

“From when?”

“Three weeks ahead.”

Jack frowned a little. “Should we be talking to you?”

“It’s okay,” the Doctor assured him.

“So it’s a he? A he that can travel in time? Is it the Master?”

“I wish, at least he might mix some mind games in for some variety,” the Doctor grunted as more pain shot through his arms. 

“Your arms must be killing.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“How long have you been like this?”

“A few hours I think. At least they’ll go numb soon. Are they broken, by the way?”

“Numb’s not exactly better, by the way. And they don’t look broken,” Jack told him after a short, intense stare.

“Dislocated?”

“Dunno.”

“Can I help?” a new voice suddenly asked from out of the Doctor’s field of vision. It was a woman speaking in Chichewa.

“Are you Asha Fall?” the Doctor asked in Chichewa, and a woman stepped in front of him in poor, ill-fitting handmade clothes.

“How do you know my name? You speak Chichewa?” she asked, stunned.

“You were the only woman from Africa on the list of the abductees, it had to be you,” the Doctor responded.

“What the fuck’s going on, can someone tell me who the hell this guy is and why he’s all tied up!?” an American suddenly asked, and a good-looking, blond, well-built man appeared in the Doctor’s field of vision. He recognised the man immediately.

“Clint Mendoza.”

“Yeah, I’m not doing any  _ fucking  _ autographs, what the hell’s happening!?”

The Doctor stared at the terrified Clint for a moment. In three weeks he would be murdered. And this time the Doctor would probably see it happen with his eyes rather than on a TV. “Okay, look. You’ve been abducted along with fifty-five other people by a mad man called Toby who wants to build a body. I’m not quite sure why I’m tied up but I’m assuming it’s because he likes me considerably less than you lot,” he explained to them all.

“Building a body!?” Clint gasped.

“Yeah.”

“What the hell are they gonna do to us for  _ that!?  _ That’s not even possible! We don’t have the technology! This ain’t real! This is all some fucking sick wind-up, ain’t it!?”

“You said you’re from the future … You must know what happens to us,” Asha said suddenly to the Doctor, wide-eyed.

“I can’t speak your dumbass language!” Clint yelled in Asha’s face who shrank back in fear, clearly as a result of being yelled at in a language she couldn’t understand.

“Can you shut up?” Jack asked seriously, glaring at Clint. “The technology is real, time travel is real, so get over it. Doctor?” he prompted.

The Doctor noted Clint had seemed to sober somewhat, like Jack had just slapped him across the face. “Thank you,” the Time Lord said, and looked at them all again. “Yes, I’m from the future. Three weeks in the future. I can tell you, quite confidently, that … I have absolutely no idea what happened to you.”

Clint opened his mouth again, so the Doctor quickly cut him off.

“What I  _ do  _ know is that my brother and our friends will be here at some point after the three weeks to get us out.”

“Honestly?” Asha asked quietly.

The Doctor looked at her. “Yeah,” he said softly. He liked her. She had just accepted the situation without the hysterics that had befallen Clint. She had tried to be proactive in a situation she had no way of understanding, surrounded by people who couldn’t speak her language. If he had still been looking for a companion, she was certainly made of the right materials. “I promise.”

“Until then, we’re stuck,” Jack assumed.

“Yeah.”

Jack nodded. “Okay,” he said, pushing himself onto tiptoes and reaching up to the bonds around the Doctor’s wrists, running his fingers around. “I think I can see the catch…”

_ “Don’t try,”  _ Toby’s voice sounded from the iPad. Everyone looked at it immediately, Jack letting go of the Doctor.

“Who are you?” Jack asked quickly.

_ “There’s that question again…” _

Bzzz!

Everyone leapt back from the Doctor, Luke included, as suddenly the Time Lord yelled, jerking in his chains as the electricity hit him, taking him completely by surprise.

“No, stop!” Jack shouted in alarm and the buzzing abruptly stopped, leaving the Doctor hanging there, coughing.

“Toby, please, do what you want to me but don’t do it in front of Luke and Alex,” the Time Lord begged his captor as Jack quickly grabbed them both and turned them away from the sight.

_ “Put the mask back on, Harkness,”  _ he ordered when the Doctor had stopped yelling.

Jack glanced at the Doctor, who mouthed a soundless ‘yes’. Jack promptly secured the mask back on his face.

_ “Step back.” _

“D-do it,” the Doctor grunted.

Jack obediently stepped back from the Time Lord.

_ “Thank you. You touch him again and he’ll get electrocuted, like this,”  _ Toby said, leant forward, and hit the button.

Bzzz!

“Stop it, please,” Asha, begged, but Toby wasn’t listening.

_ “If any of you touch him, he gets electrocuted. You try to escape, he gets electrocuted. Anything I don’t like, guess what? He gets electrocuted. If you try to remove the collar, he gets electrocuted. And in special circumstances, I’ll be perfectly happy to take away his oxygen. With the condition he’s in, I don’t think that’s very recommended, is it, Jack?” _

Jack remained stony silent, pulling the sobbing Alex back and holding him protectively again, turning the boy away from the sight of his father once more. 

Bzzz!

_ “Answer me.” _

Jack glanced at the Doctor, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out after his third electric shock since he’d walked in that morning. “No,” he agreed quietly. 

_ “Excellent. Make yourselves comfortable. And shut up that alien kid, he’s doing my head in,”  _ he finished, pressed a button, and the iPad switched off.

Jack quickly tightened his hug on crying Alex, kissing his forehead. “It’s okay. Daddy’s fine,” he said, without really knowing if the Doctor was indeed fine. “Doctor?” 

The Doctor could only just about raise his head to Jack before he fainted.   



	16. 22nd May 2013,13:11:31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor continues to be tortured. Jack negotiates with Toby to give him some relief.

The Doctor was getting used to waking up in severe amounts of pain now, and this time was no different - his constant endorphin flow to try and minimise the pain seemed to be doing very little. His situation and surroundings hadn’t changed, except now he couldn’t feel anyone’s presence in the room.

“Jack?” he called out, just in case.

_ “Gone, I’m afraid,”  _ Toby replied, the iPad turning on again.

“Where?”

_ “First round,”  _ Toby replied simply.

“First round of what? Your body part idea?”

_ “Yes.” _

The Doctor quickly searched inside himself for the bond to Alex. He felt fine. He was scared, but fine. “Can I ask you something, Toby?”

_ “Of course.” _

“Why do you want Alex?”

_ “Pardon?” _

“You’ve taken everyone who’s got the best something on the planet for you to build a body. What does Alex have that you want?”

Toby gazed at him for a long moment.  _ “...You don't know. Oh,” _ he stopped, tapping his chin in consideration.  _ “I suppose you wouldn't yet, would you?” _

“Know what?”

_ “Actually I'm surprised you don't see it when you look at him.” _

“See wha-”

Suddenly the door slammed open, affording the Doctor a quick glance outside. It didn’t look much more appealing than the inside. He was so intent on the outside in fact, that what stepped  _ inside  _ almost completely passed him by.

Jimmy Stone.

“You utter fucktard,” Jimmy grated. Those mind-controlled eyes were still there, but had dulled a little.

“Good morning to you too,” the Doctor replied sarcastically.

“Still got that fuckin’ gob,” Jimmy swore again.

“Sorry, it does tend to go wherever I go,” the Doctor replied, nonchalant.

Bzzz!

The electric hit him again. It was becoming very familiar.

Jimmy held up a remote that indicated he had the power. “Yeah, be nice to me ya alien fuck.”

The Doctor took a breath, evening out his respiration. He thought it best not to aggravate Jimmy.

“Bet ya thought it was well fuckin’ funny, didn’t ya?” Jimmy yelled, infuriated.

“What was funny?” the Doctor asked tiredly.

“Abductin’ me!”

The Doctor snorted with laughter, completely unintentionally. There was no getting out of this shock now. He might as well accompany it with a line. “Yeah, it was pretty funny.”

Jimmy’s eyes inflamed, his face screwing up like a petulant child in a tantrum. The Doctor waited all of half a second, and Jimmy pressed the button.

Bzzz!

“I said be  _ nice  _ to me!” Jimmy spat as the Doctor panted.

The Doctor looked at the iPad. “Oh, Toby, you’re smarter than this. Are you really going to let him have a go at me?”

_ “Hey, I’m not doing anything,”  _ Toby told him, hands in the air in innocence.  _ “Jimmy knows what he’s gotta do.” _

“What?” the Doctor croaked.

_ “A little therapy,” _ Toby replied.  _ “He’s quite useless right now, and yes, very stupid, so he needs to direct his anger until there's nothing left but hate.” _

Bzzz!

“What!?” the Doctor gasped, a little annoyed at that shock. “I didn’t do anything!”

“He called me stupid!” Jimmy said, pointing at the screen.

“So you electrocute  _ me!?  _ How stupid  _ are  _ you?”

“Fuck you!”

Toby was laughing.  _ “Oh, this is gonna be funny. Jimmy, you know the limits. Nothing on the face, don’t touch the collar and nothing life threatening.” _

Jimmy gave one sharp, furious nod as he gazed with pure hate at the Doctor.

The iPad switched off, and Jimmy pushed up his sleeves.

“You don’t have to do this, Jimmy,” the Doctor said quickly. “Toby’s using you for his own means…”

“No talkin’,  _ Doctor,”  _ he spat out the last word like acid, and punched him.

“Jim-”

_ “No talkin’!!!”  _ Jimmy screamed, and hit him with another punch.

The Doctor coughed, struggling to get in air as he was completely winded.

“You were gonna talk, weren’t ya!?”

The Doctor remained stony silent, staring at Jimmy.

“Well!?” Jimmy demanded to know.

The Doctor frowned at him. If he could have shrugged he would have, but either way, Jimmy seemed to get the message.

“You can answer me,” Jimmy said quickly, sounding a little confused himself.

“No, I wasn’t, I was coughing. You’re punching me in the stomach and anatomy just dictates that I’m going to have to cough,” the Doctor explained patiently.

“Well yeah, course I know that!” Jimmy said. “D’you wan’ another fuckin’ punch?” 

He waited for a moment, staring at the Doctor.

Bzzz!

“Goddamn talk to me!!!” Jimmy demanded ferociously.

The Doctor took a few, deep breaths, and looked back up at Jimmy. “Honestly? No. Have you ever met someone who  _ wants  _ to be punched? And look, I’m confused. When can I talk? Can I talk when you ask me a question? Or no?”

Jimmy stared at him maliciously.

“Stop confusin’ me!” Jimmy spat out, now completely lost. There was a long pause. The Doctor got another punch and a dose of electricity. “Answer me!”

“That wasn’t a question,” the Doctor pointed out.

“Okay, just talk, but no clever little fuckin’ lines!”

“Okay. Thanks for the clarification.”

Jimmy punched him one more time, before stepping back and picking up a firm and sturdy-looking metal rod.

The Doctor had a very strong feeling that it was going to be a while until this ended. At least, whatever Jimmy was about to put him through, nobody else would see. He gritted his teeth.

* * *

When Jack and the others got back to the cell, it was eerily quiet. The moment Jack entered he grabbed Alex and held him so he couldn’t see his father.

The Doctor was clearly unconscious, still hanging there with the collar on his neck and the mask on his face. His clothes were considerably more ripped, and stains of blood reddened them like a macabre tie-dye. His face was even whiter than before, and his arms, wrists and hands were distinctively purple and starting to swell. His chest was heaving - like he could barely breathe.

“Oh God,” Jack whined, feeling his heart practically rip in two at the sight. Jack recognised this point from a deep, dark memory long ago that he preferred not to access. The Year That Never Was. And from this experience, he knew that in this state the Doctor was reaching his limit.

“This is fucked up, man! Really fucked up!” Clint exclaimed, staring at the Doctor in horror.

“Calm down,” Jack implored, trying desperately to think rationally about the situation.

“There's a guy hanging from the ceiling unconscious and covered in blood and you want me to calm the fuck down!? I wanna go back home!”

“You're not the only one!” Jack snapped, and looked at Asha, who clearly had no idea what was going on. She said something in her language, but Chichewa hadn’t been on the Time Agent reading list. He smiled supportively at her, and held out Alex. She nodded, understanding, taking the boy and holding him comfortingly. He was still crying.

“Jack?” Luke asked quietly. “What did they do?”

Jack looked at the blood patterns and rips on his best friend’s clothes. It sickened him that even from a blood spatter he was so adept at this he could probably describe what had happened like he had been there. He decided not to reveal this to Luke.

“I’m guessing they just punched him a few times,” Jack lied. “Probably lacerated the skin and that’s where the blood’s coming from. It’s nothing too bad.”

“How the fuck do  _ you  _ know?” Clint demanded.

“Look, I’ve seen this before,” Jack said quietly. “The Doctor’s body’s resilient, it can hold out for a long time. But he needs a rest right now or he’s gonna suffocate. His lungs are being completely crushed.”

“There’s no fucking point!” Clint snapped. “He’s a dead man!”

“Shut up,” Jack grated.

“Why should I!?”

Jack moved to him, so close their noses almost touched. His voice was low, grating, like gravel. “Because he is my best friend and that kid over there?” He pointed at Alex. “He is his daddy. I am  _ not  _ letting a one-year-old boy witness the brutal murder of his dad and the last thing we need is  _ you  _ screaming your head, all right!?”

Clint shut his mouth, turned, and walked to the corner of the cell where he dropped to sit down, silent.

“Toby!” Jack called. “Toby!”

_ “Yes?”  _ he answered, the iPad turning on.

Jack took a breath, trying desperately not to address the man with the amount of anger he currently felt. “Please let him down. Just for a bit. He needs rest and some food and drink. Please.”

Toby looked at the Doctor, then at his watch. There was a long, long silence before Toby lowered his watch, and spoke.  _ “Okay, now. He’s got one hour.” _

“Thank you,” Jack breathed, and moved to the bonds. “Luke, gimme a hand.”

The boy obliged, and Jack undid the bonds attached to the Doctor’s swollen wrists. Together they carefully maneuvered his limp body to lie on the cold floor. 

Jack dropped to the Time Lord immediately, hand on his face. “Doctor? Doctor.”

The Doctor’s eyes opened to slits, those deep brown irises looking up at Jack through a haze of pain. 

“I c-can’t f-feel my … my a-arms,” he managed to stumble out.

“Yeah, they’re purple and swollen. Don’t worry, I got this,” Jack said, and moved to take position to drag the Time Lord across the floor. The Doctor flinched at his touch.

“No electric, promise,” Jack told him softly. “I’m gonna move you. It’s gonna hurt.”

“P-Please d-don’t,” the Doctor gasped quietly.

“I need to check the damage.”

“Th-they’re f-fine.”

“They’re purple.”

“I l-like … p-purple.”

Jack rolled his eyes and kissed him on the forehead. “Brace yourself,” he warned, and began to move him.

The Doctor choked out a gasp of pain, the sound hitting Jack like an ice-pick straight into his chest. He didn’t relent however, continuing to pull him across the stone floor until the Time Lord was sat up against the wall, panting desperately. The Doctor’s face seemed to have turned from deathly white to pure red from the exertion of trying to contain his screaming in a matter of seconds.

“Okay, that’s it,” Jack assured him, pulling off his coat and laying it over the Doctor to try and disguise the blood stains. “Alex,” he said to the boy, who was still cowered into Asha. “Alex. Come here, Daddy needs a hug.”

Alec looked at him, then at his father, and toddled over next to him. He stood there, tears still flooding his cheeks.

“It’s okay, you can touch him,” Jack assured the boy. 

Alex reached out, ever so slowly, and placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. The Doctor immediately flinched at the touch and Alex quickly backed away, his eyes wide.

“Alex, it’s okay,” Jack assured him. “He can’t help flinching.”

Alex continued to stand there, absolutely bewildered.

“A-Alex,” the Doctor said quietly. “It’s ok-kay ... p-please hug m-me.”

At his father’s words, Alex stepped forward again, reaching out a hesitant hand pressing the Doctor’s shoulder again. The Doctor managed to suppress the flinch, and Alex immediately wrapped his arms around his dad’s neck, kissing his cheek.

He couldn’t hug back, but he kissed his son in return. “Y-you being good?”

Alex drew back, nodding.

“Good. E-everything's gonna be okay. We’ll cook some n-nuggets and chips when we get home. Or those little t-turkey dinosaurs. I love those.”

Alex giggled at that, sniffing before hugging his dad once more. 

“Luke?” the Doctor looked up drowsily, spotting the teen sitting next to Asha. “M-Mum’s safe.”

Luke nodded. 

“Don’t be sc-scared,” the Doctor told him. “Everything’s g-gonna be fine, okay?”

Luke nodded again. “I know.”

“W-Whatever you s-see here doesn’t m-matter. I’ve had worse. Pr-promise. This is nothing.”

Luke nodded once more. “Okay, Doctor.”

Jack turned his attentions back to Alex, having to peel the boy from his father. “Okay, I need to check the damage to daddy, Alex.”

Alex looked crestfallen, but clearly understood and nodded, giving the Doctor one last kiss before going back to Asha, hiding in her arms.

“Okay, this ain’t gonna be pretty,” Jack said, and began to unbutton the Doctor’s blooded shirt. The Doctor cried out a little but managed to stifle most sounds. “Ah.”

The Doctor looked at him. “What? Ah’s n-not good.”

Jack didn’t reply, being very careful as he pushed back the shoulder of the shirt.

“Is it a g-good ah or a bad ah?” the Doctor wondered.

“It’s an ‘I think it looks worse than it is’ ah,” Jack told him, wiping a gentle finger along some of the dried blood on his best friend’s chest. There were some lacerations and some severe bruising around the right side of the Doctor’s chest.

“So it’s a b-bad ah,” the Doctor summarised.

“It’s a mid-range ah,” Jack assured him. “I think you’ve broken a rib.”

“Me too,” the Doctor agreed, his chest heaving.

Jack turned his attention to his shoulders, next. “Yeah,” he said, pulling back the shirt again for a better look. “They’re dislocated. I’ll put them back in.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be a wuss. Besides, they’re numb anyway, aren’t they?” Jack said, taking the Doctor’s arm and pulling it out to a ninety degree angle. The Doctor swore in an alien language, his entire face contorted with pain. “Clint,” Jack said quickly, looking at the American still sitting against the wall. “I need a hand.”

“No fucking way.”

“Get over here,” Jack grated.

“Fuck off!” Clint yelled, his head in his hands.

“All right,” Jack muttered, got himself into position and placed a foot just under the Doctor’s shoulder to hold him in place.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “No, no, no…”

Jack began to pull on his arm.

“No!” the Doctor ended up blurting out somewhere in his pained yells. Jack kept pulling as the Doctor kept yelling until the shoulder finally popped back into place and Jack let go.

For a moment they both just sat there, panting.

“You’ve got feeling back, then,” Jack surmised.

“I h-hate you,” the Doctor responded shortly.

“Sorry, I’m doing the other,” Jack said.

“Don’t you  _ d-dare…” _

Jack did it anyway in exactly the same fashion. He knew and the Doctor knew with Gallifreyan healing rates a dislocated shoulder was extremely dangerous. It could fuse together, still dislocated, and need major surgery to sort out. So with a tug, a pop and a howl of pain, the shoulder went back in. The Doctor’s face had turned back from red to white so Jack hugged him carefully until the pain wasn’t quite so severe as a silent sorry. In response, the Doctor rested his head on Jack’s shoulder in indication that he forgave him. They both knew it had had to be done.

Jack held up the Time Lord’s wrist next, cradling it in his palm. The Doctor didn’t react to that.

“Numb?” Jack asked. The Doctor nodded. The entire wrist was misshapen and dangled uselessly with gravity, blood slicked down his hands from horrible sores where the ropes had held him. The other wrist matched it. “Both your wrists are dislocated.”

“If y-you put them b-back you’re dead,” the Doctor told him seriously.

“No,” Jack said, pulling off his collared shirt. With a little help from his teeth he managed to rip a strip off of the shirt and he wrapped it firmly around the Doctor’s wrists. “Think I might shatter the bones even more if I tried putting them back.”

The Doctor sighed, remaining still and silent as Jack carefully bandaged both wrists. He made sure they were extra heavy in anticipation of the Doctor being strung back up again. He half expected Toby to take them off again but at least he’d tried.

The door suddenly unlocked, and several soldiers came in with food. One stood to the side, pointing his gun at them as three more placed trays down on the floor in silence. They filtered back out again as quickly as they’d come and the door was locked once more.

Everyone launched forward immediately to grab a tray, there were four in total. There were six of them in the cell. Jack was pretty sure Toby wouldn’t have miscounted.

He looked up at Asha, who was busy sharing her portion between her and Alex. Clint had his own, and so did Luke, so he took the last tray and took it back to the Doctor.

“Toby?”

Toby appeared almost immediately, smiling as was standard with him.  _ “Yes?” _

“Can I please feed him something?” Even as the words left his mouth he resented them. Having to ask  _ permission  _ to let his best friend eat. But he wasn’t risking the Doctor getting electrocuted anymore, and that meant playing nice.

Whatever forced politeness he put in his voice seemed to work.

_ “Go ahead,”  _ Toby replied happily, and disappeared again.

Jack picked up a piece of dry bread and pulled the mask from the Doctor’s face. It was starting to create sores where it continuously rested around his mouth. “Doc,” he urged, propping his head up.

“What?” he moaned quietly.

“Open up, here comes the aeroplane,” he said, ripping up the bread and feeding the Time Lord. The Doctor opened his eyes in surprise, struggling to chew and swallow the bread - it was so dry in fact that Jack assumed it had all the enjoyment of eating sandpaper.

“Jack, no. I’m fine, I can go without,” the Doctor insisted. 

“Yeah, you can,” Jack agreed, and fed him another piece. “But you get tetchy. I hate you when you’re tetchy.”

“I don’t get tetchy.”

“Yes, you do.”

The Doctor sighed, finally accepting it, letting Jack feed him the meagre meal of bread and porridge, followed by sips of warm water. When he was finished Jack cleaned up the blood as best he could and did up his shirt again.

“How long have we been here?” the Doctor asked quietly.

“Is your time sense not working?”

“No … I don’t know why.”

“He must’ve given you something to block it off,” Jack reasoned.

“You didn’t answer the question.”

Jack winced. “You’re not gonna like the answer.”

“Try me.”

“Around twelve hours.”

“Oh god,” the Doctor moaned.

Jack kissed him, careful and with love. “We’ll get through this. Twelve hours closer to the end. Go into a healing coma. Keep it away from your wrists.”

The Doctor nodded. “Jack,” he suddenly said.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We did it before, now we’ll do it again. And this time it’s not the Master. It’s easier than that.”

The Doctor nodded once more, closed his eyes, and dropped into a healing coma quite willingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More coming soon!


	17. 23rd May 2013, 07:42:04

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy makes his broadcast to the nation before Clint loses patience.

The Doctor was awake, hanging by his wrists in the cell as per usual. Toby hadn’t taken off Jack’s makeshift bandages which made things a little less painful, but not enough by any standards. 

Everyone else was asleep. The Doctor hadn’t slept, only passed out and regained consciousness sporadically throughout the night. When the iPad switched on he was in a lucid state - sharply awoken by the sound of Toby’s voice.

_ “Morning.” _

The Doctor lifted his head, his brow furrowed. “What’s the time?”

_ “7:42am. C’mon everyone, wake up.” _

As the others woke up behind him, the Doctor slowly worked out the significance of that time through his addled brain. It was the 23rd May at 7:42am …

_ “Here we are. I’ll just broadcast this to everyone.” _

“What’s he doing?” Jack asked tiredly.

“Jimmy Stone,” the Doctor muttered. “This was when Jimmy broadcasted.”

“What?”

The Doctor stayed silent as Jimmy’s emotional lie broadcast to the entire world. Seeing the acne-ridden greaseball lowlife who had beat him half to death presented smartly and throwing out received pronunciation seemed even more bizarre the second time around.

By the time Jimmy had finished, Jack was infuriated. “That’s not true! He can’t do that!”

“He just did,” the Doctor muttered.

“No one’ll see him. They’ll just think he’s crazy.” He looked at the Doctor for confirmation, but the Doctor’s face told him all he needed to know. “... People believe him?”

“In their droves,” the Doctor confirmed.

Toby came back on screen.  _ “He’s like a completely different man, dontcha think?” _

The Doctor didn’t reply.

_ “Oh, come on, not one word?” _

The Doctor remained perfectly silent.

Bzzz!

“Leave him alone, please,” Asha begged as the Doctor received his first electric shock for quite a while. The pain somehow seemed to be worse than he remembered it, and it took a few moments for him to gather himself.

_ “He’s doing it to himself,”  _ Toby told her.  _ “Alien fuck. I’m taking his life apart piece by piece just like he did to me.” _

“Who  _ are  _ you?” the Doctor wanted to know. “If I’ve destroyed your life then please, let me help you fix it.”

The now highly familiar buzzing sound of pure electric ripping through the Doctor began again, and it didn’t seem to relent for quite a while. Seconds ticked by like hours as the Doctor convulsed until Toby finally released the button and the iPad abruptly switched off.

Jack quickly looked at the Doctor. He was hanging limp in the ropes, unable to get enough strength to put himself upright. Jack wanted so desperately to touch him, but couldn’t. If Toby kept this going for three weeks then the Doctor would have irreparable nerve damage which would definitely result in paralysis to both of his arms. It made him feel a bit sick that at least the Master had known when to stop before permanently disabling his prisoner. Toby didn’t seem to have any brakes.

“It’s all you,” a voice suddenly came from Jack’s left. It was Clint. “Everything he’s doing is cos of  _ you,  _ ain’t it?”

“Clint,” Jack began quickly. “Calm down.”

Clint walked in front of the Doctor, ignoring Jack. “He’s abducted us because of  _ you!”  _ he shouted, jerking an accusatory finger at the Time Lord.

“This isn’t helping,” Jack said calmly.

“I don’t care! I wanna go the fuck home!” Clint shouted, glaring at Jack. “If we kill him he’s got no reason to do this!”

Alarm bells rang in Jack’s head. “No, Clint!”

“Just kill him!” Clint screamed, grabbed the Doctor’s legs and pulled down. The Doctor screamed as Jack dove forward, trying to get a hold on Clint, but the human pushed him away into the wall, stunning him. 

“Let go!” Luke implored. 

“No! Stop it!” Asha cried, clearly too scared to do anything to intervene as she held Alex close to her chest. “Stop doing that!”

Clint launched out in a pummel of fists on the Doctor, and managed to catch one on his broken rib. The Doctor reacted violently, choking out through the mask before his entire body stiffened …

Jack knew what this was. 

He dived for Clint again, and this time there were several soldiers to help his cause. Together they tore Clint from the Doctor, who by now was completely still. Clint was dragged out of the cell, and immediately the soldiers went to the Doctor, lowering him down.

“Doctor!” Jack called. “Talk to me!”

He didn’t, and Jack could only watch as the soldiers checked his eyes. They were rolled back into his skull. One soldier unpacked a defibrillator and dealt a shock to each heart in turn. The Doctor’s body jolted, but he didn’t kick back into life. They tried again, but still nothing happened.

Jack needed something to hold, so he grabbed Luke and hugged him tightly as he stared, transfixed at what was going on in front of him. The sound of Alex crying was piercing his eardrums.

The soldiers tried a third shock, but the Doctor still didn’t react. There was a horrible golden aura about him - regeneration energy, beginning to manifest itself.

“He’s not responding, sir,” one of the soldiers informed Toby, who was still on the iPad staring in fury at what was happening. “He’s going to regenerate …”

_ “Stupid little fucking actor!”  _ Toby swore, slamming his fist on the desk.  _ “Get him treated!” _

The soldiers quickly grabbed the Doctor between them and whisked him out of the door. Another one closed and locked the door behind them, leaving the cell only filled with the sobs of the one-year-old boy in Asha’s arms.

“What are you gonna do to Clint, Toby?” Jack asked anxiously.

_ “He’s going to pay. And shut up that fucking baby!” _

The iPad switched off.

They waited seven long days for the Doctor to return.

He was dragged, unconscious by his feet to the side of the cell away from the others as soldiers kept them at bay. Jack quickly checked him - he was bandaged up and dressed in a plain white t-shirt and shorts, exposing bruised and bloody legs which had been cleaned and stitched up. He had a coating of stubble and an incredibly pale and dirty face as well as the obligatory collar and mask, along with some strange, evenly-spaced red dots around his head and neck.

He was manacled to the wall, his arms aloft once again. His ankles were clamped to the ground, leaving him on a sitting position with his head lolled forward onto his chest. One of the soldiers quickly checked for a pulse, and, when satisfied, they all left.

The iPad switched on. They hadn’t seen Toby since the Doctor had been taken out, and he didn’t seem to have calmed down very much in seven days.

_ “Nobody touches him,”  _ he snapped. _ “You got that? Or you know what fucking happens!” _

Bzzz!

Jack felt a little sick as the Doctor’s entire body convulsed with the shock - the bastard would even do it when he was unconscious.

The iPad switched off. Jack quickly moved to the Time Lord.

“Doctor?” he tried.

He didn’t wake up, so instead Jack examined the marks on his head and face. They looked like something had penetrated the skin. Jack decided not to think too hard about what they might be although he already had a very good idea.

“Is he okay?” Luke suddenly asked, curled up in the corner.

“Think so,” Jack replied, looking down the Doctor’s legs. Jack had seen them before of course and he’d always been perplexed how those skinny twigs could support his body weight, but they now somehow seemed thinner than before. His ankle was bandaged too - it had been fine when he’d left the cell.

Suddenly the Doctor surprised him by flickering his eyes open hazily, before blinking a few times and focusing on him.

“Doctor,” Jack said gently. “You’re back in the cell with us.”

The Doctor looked around for a moment, scanning the occupants. Luke was curled up in the corner, Alex was with Asha, all unharmed, and Clint was there too, but…

“What happened?” the Doctor croaked in a very quiet voice, staring at the man sitting there.

“Toby did it. As punishment for attacking you,” Jack replied softly. “He took the part he wanted. His face.”

“I’m so sorry,” the Doctor whispered.

Jack could hardly bear to look at the man either. His entire face seemed to have just disappeared, smoothed apart from a small mouth where food could be inserted. He was also completely bald. He didn’t look remotely human anymore.

“He didn’t deserve that,” the Doctor muttered.

“No,” Jack agreed.

“He was scared.”

“Yeah. I can’t even figure out if he can hear us. He isn’t reacting to anything - I don’t think he can sense anything at all. Poor bastard.”

For once, the Doctor didn’t reprimand him for swearing. He just looked pained, still staring at Clint in silence.

Jack knew the answer to his next question, but asked it anyway. “Can you fix him?”

“No.”

“Thought not,” Jack replied, sighing.

After a moment’s pause, the Doctor’s eyes finally drifted to the others. “Luke?”

“Yes, Doctor?” the teen replied quickly.

“You okay?”

“... Yeah,” Luke eventually answered.

“Scared?”

“... Yeah,” he repeated, lowering his head to the floor.

“It’s okay. I’m not letting anyone else endure what Clint has, I promise. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

Luke just nodded, head still lowered.

“Hey,” the Doctor prompted. “Look at me.”

Luke did, his eyes red.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” the Doctor repeated, slowly and clearly. “Or anyone else.”

Luke sniffed, wiping his nose. “Okay.”

“Asha, that goes for you too.”

She nodded. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” the Doctor replied immediately. “Honest, I know this looks bad but I’ve had worse and got out the other side. Jack will testify.”

“He really has,” Jack affirmed.

“Alex,” the Doctor said next to the little boy next to Asha. “C’mere.”

Alex immediately got up, toddling to his dad’s side.

“Remember, don’t touch me,” the Doctor said.

Alex nodded.

“I love you.”

Alex nodded again. Jack could see in his eyes how much he desperately wanted to reach forward and hug him.

“He’s been having nightmares,” Jack told the Doctor in an undertone. “He keeps crying.”

The Doctor nodded and looked back at Alex. “I know this looks really, really bad, and it is, and you should be scared, but we will make it back home, yes?”

Alex nodded once again, utterly silent.

“We’ve just got to hold on for a little bit longer. Then I’ll hug you for as long as it takes until the nightmares go away. Cos that’s all they are. Nightmares. They can’t hurt you. So I need you to be my rock. We’ll get through this together and have those turkey dinosaurs. Honest, it's all I've been thinking about all week. Turkey dinosaurs.”

Alex giggled, his eyes lighting up.

The Doctor grinned back. “See? There it is. Keep smiling. Daddy’s here, and mummy soon will be as well. Love you. Did I mention that already?”

Alex nodded for the fourth time, still smiling.

“Good.”

“I uv voo.”

The Doctor and Jack both did a double take, looking at the little Gallifreyan with stunned expressions before looking at each other, then back at him.

“Alex, did you just …?” the Doctor ventured, trailing off, stupefied. 

Alex just continued to smile as if he’d done nothing of any consequence. He clearly wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Thank you,” the Doctor said sincerely, smiling at him. “I needed that. Go back to Asha. She's nice. We like her. And she'll give you an extra big hug to include mine.”

Alex nodded, getting up and toddling back to Asha. As promised, she gave him a very tight hug, nodding at the Doctor.

Jack looked back at the Doctor. He was still smiling, until he looked back at Jack, which made it fall immediately. “I … know where we are,” he said deliberately to mask it from the others, and in particular Toby.

“Where?”

“... Tower of London.”

Jack’s eyes shot open. “But that’s…”

“I know,” the Doctor replied. “Unit property.”

“Unit did all this!?”

“I think they’ve got a new boss named Toby and have had him for quite a while.”

“You’re kidding,” Jack whispered, horrified.

“Since a month after we took Leah to hospital.”

“That’s why they don’t like you anymore…”

“Yeah.”

“This is insane. Surely the Unit soldiers would fight back.”

“That’s what I thought, until they…” The Doctor glanced around, lowered his voice even more. “They did some testing on me. I know they've been wanting my anatomy in their records for a while. They were just too polite to ask.”

Jack nodded, his eyes tracing up to the pinprick red spots again. It confirmed his suspicions. Devices, drilling into the alien’s head. “And now they've got you. What happened to your ankle?”

“My fault,” the Doctor admitted. “I was drugged up. Thought it would be great to try and escape. So they got a hammer and went to town on it. I was so out of it I barely felt it. At least they bandaged it after.”

Jack was immediately hit with a vivid flashback of the Year That Never Was he’d rather be without, so he pushed it out of his brain as quickly as it had come. “Oh god,” was all he managed.

“How are you coping?” the Doctor wondered.

“Okay,” Jack assured him.

The Doctor gazed at him, as if reading his soul. “I know this is ... Like before. It must be hard for you.”

“I'm not important,” Jack insisted.

The Doctor grinned. 

“We need to get everyone out of here,” Jack continued. The Doctor made to interrupt, but Jack quickly held up a hand to silence him. “I know your brother’s coming and all that, but we’ve still got two more weeks to go and I’m not putting a bet on our odds right now. Are you actually sure, being from the future, that we didn't escape and just hide somewhere?”

“Well … I guess we could’ve, but ...”

“Come on. We must be able to get through to someone in Unit. Who’s your contact you met in London?”

“What, the Brigadier?”

“He’s only a brigadier?” Jack asked, frowning. “That’s not high enough.”

“He’s a general now,” the Doctor pointed out.

“Oh. Then yeah, him,” Jack said quickly. “You must have some allies up there willing to get a message to him.”

The Doctor’s eyebrows lowered. “I’m not sure whose experimentation you were at but from where I was standing - or rather, lying down having things stuck into me - there weren’t a lot of allies around.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Doc, frankly anyone who bothered drugging you up there was doing you a favour.”

“... Good point,” the Time Lord conceded.

“So what if we feigned illness or something? Got one of us back up there?” Jack suggested. “Get a message out.”

“Maybe.”

“You’re not convinced,” Jack realised.

“Toby’s not stupid.”

“It’ll work,” Jack insisted. “We just need to…”

_ “Nice plan!”  _ Toby interrupted suddenly, the iPad turning on.  _ “No, really. I’m impressed.” _

Jack shot up to standing position. “Toby, sorry.”

Bzzz!

The Doctor spasmed violently, crying out at Jack’s feet.

“No, it was me, not him,” Jack said quickly. “He said you were too clever.”

_ “And he was right,”  _ Toby completed.

Bzzz!

The Doctor yelled again. Jack impulsively stepped over him, as if shielding him with his body would somehow help. “Take me, please. Don’t do this to him. It was me.”

_ “What fun are you, immortal? Anything I do to you isn’t permanent. Your pain doesn’t last. The Doctor, on the other hand, his does last. You’re in my domain, freak. Anything I don’t like, and he gets it. Step away.” _

Jack froze. Toby had just called him freak. There was only one man who called him that…

Bzzz!

_ “Move!”  _ Toby demanded.

Jack quickly backed away, looking down at the Doctor in horror. The Doctor was looking at him, his face pale once more.

_ I’m sorry.  _ Jack mouthed.

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly, nodding his head a little. Apology accepted, just before the Doctor suddenly began to choke on something. Jack was immediately alarmed, but before he could act Toby interrupted him.

_ “Carbon monoxide,”  _ Toby said, obscenely happy about it as the Doctor continued to cough and choke underneath the mask. Jack hadn’t seen its purpose before now. He immediately wished he had never found out.

“Please, Toby,” Jack begged desperately. “That’ll kill him!”

_ “Oh, it won’t,”  _ Toby assured him.  _ “Time Lords have the ability to filter certain harmful gases, one of which being carbon monoxide. When a Time Lord breathes it in, he takes the oxygen and uses it, before expelling the waste back out in a cough. Unfortunately for the Doctor, that expelled air has nowhere to go but back into his mouth. He’s going to be breathing his own recycled poisonous air for precisely four hours, thirty five minutes, fifteen seconds,”  _ Toby completed, checking his watch.

“Please, Toby,” Jack was begging now. He didn’t even feel ashamed. “This is my fault, please. Just give him oxygen. I’m begging you. You know he needs oxygen.”

Toby ignored him.  _ “After that time, he will start to die. So after four hours, thirty five minutes and nine seconds, he can have his oxygen back.” _

“You can’t do this, please …”

_ “Lesson learnt. Don’t cross me, Freak,”  _ Toby spat.  _ “And shut up that goddamn baby or I’ll shut it up myself!” _

The iPad switched off, and only the sound of Alex crying and the Doctor coughing filled the room.

Jack looked at the occupants, feeling insanely guilty. Luke was in the foetal position, Asha was holding Alex with her eyes tightly closed, faceless Clint remained perfectly still and the Doctor - with fresh blood on his clothes and his ankle - was barely conscious, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Doctor,” Jack croaked, looking up at him. “I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t even tell if the Doctor had heard him or not.


	18. 10th June 2013, 01:11:50

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex’s life hangs in the balance, and the Doctor is forced to obey Toby to save his son.

They hadn’t seen Toby for two whole weeks apart from the odd egotistical interruption and testing for body parts, but they had been playing by the rules. The Doctor hadn’t been electrocuted since the incident before.

Toby seemed incredibly adept at keeping him in a lucid state. Only Jack was allowed to touch him, just to give him food and nothing else, which he had to spoon feed to the Time Lord as though he were a toddler. However, the Doctor’s arms were now pointless bits of flesh attached to him. The damage done to them was now irreparable and only a regeneration would restore their function.

The only saving grace were his healing comas. Every time he was allowed Jack would feed him before he slipped into a healing coma. At this point the comas seemed to be the only thing that kept him lucid enough to talk quietly to Jack, even if his speech was slightly slurred and disconnected. But he hadn’t been able to control where the coma healed, and his wrists were starting to fuse while still being dislocated.

Today Jack had fed him and he’d gone into a healing coma, as was the ritual. Sixty minutes later he’d woken up - a full hour and ten minutes and Toby hadn’t seemed to have realised the time. He slipped into sleep very quickly after, his body still desperately trying to heal.

* * *

_ “Oh, I’m so nearly out. I’m so nearly here.” _

_ “You’re nowhere near me!” the Doctor screamed out, infuriated. _

_ “Oh, but I am. Haven’t you felt us already, Time Lord? I’m the little part of us that punched Braxiatel in the face. I’m the little part of us that hated those humans on the Plass. I’m the little part of us that wants Toby to die …” _

_ “It’s not happening!” _

_ “Oh, but it will. Toby’s already told us, hasn’t he? We’ll kill him, murder him.” _

_ “He’s lying.” _

_ “Is he? Guess we’ll find out.” _

* * *

He jerked awake, and realised he’d clearly been asleep for a good eight hours as it was now into the early hours of the 10th of June, and Toby seemed to have left him alone. Jack himself was fast asleep, as were most of the cell’s occupants, except for the sound of someone crying softly.

He looked up, and saw Alex was the source.

“Alex,” he whispered softly.

The boy looked up immediately.

“C’mere.”

Alex shuffled towards him, keeping himself at a foot distance from his father as he coughed through his tears.

“Not long now. Uncle Brax and everyone will be here soon. Mum’s coming too,” the Doctor said softly.

Alex nodded, sniffing.

“Has Toby told you what he wants from you?”

Alex shook his head.

“I don’t know either. But he’s not touching you, okay?”

Alex nodded. The Doctor could see in his eyes how much he desperately wanted to touch him. The little boy’s eyes were welled up with tears - those blue eyes gazing unblinkingly at him. He wanted more than anything to reach forward and hold his son, kiss him and tell him in body language alone that everything was going to be alright. That daddy loved him. That mummy loved him. And they’d do whatever it took to make sure he was okay. 

The Doctor could say those words all he liked, but without being able to touch him - his  _ own son _ \- words were just words. They didn’t carry the meaning anymore. He wanted to hold Alex to his chest; feel the double beat of his baby boy’s tiny hearts against him, intermingling with his own into a nice comfortable four beat rhythm.

Just one touch. That was all he wanted.

Nobody but Jack could touch him … But Toby had never mentioned any rules on him touching someone else.

The Doctor looked at his arms - the pointless flesh currently laid across the stone floor. He couldn’t feel anything of them anymore - the nerves were destroyed. But he had a stronger will than that. He gritted his teeth, concentrating on just trying to move his right arm. After several long moments, his finger twitched and pain shot right down through his wrist and up his arm.

He didn’t mind that. Pain was good. Pain was feeling.

He tried it again. This time the finger curled further, and even more pain shot through his arm. He tried again, and again, and eventually he could slowly ball his hand into a loose fist and release it again. 

Alex was staring at him, still with tears in his eyes. He looked at the boy, offered a pained smile, and tried to move his whole arm. It took a good few minutes for it to respond but when it did, more pain screamed up through his entire arm. But he didn’t care. The more the pain, the more he was feeling.

So he kept doing it. Clenching and unclenching his fist, waggling his fingers and bending his elbow until it reached a vaguely useful state. He looked up at Alex again, and - ignoring all the pain - began to reach out to him. For a moment Alex sat there, stunned, unsure of what to do. But the Doctor just smiled, twisted his body forward and scraped his fingertips against Alex’s shirt.

No electric shock came.

He forced his palm onto the boy, feeling his warm skin under his hand for the first time in six weeks. Alex took his big hand in both his little ones, pulling on each finger before squeezing his whole hand. Pain once again fired through his hand but the Doctor didn’t care as Alex dived onto him, holding him around the neck. The Doctor moved his arm up to cradle his son as tightly as he could manage, kissing his forehead as the little Gallifreyan burst into tears again.

“Shh, it’s okay,” the Doctor said softly. “I’m here.”

“Da,” Alex said quietly through his sobs.

“Yeah?”

“Am scurred,” he said, coughing.

“I know,” the Doctor replied quietly. “But he’s not touching you. I don’t know why he wants you but he’s not touching you. I love you.”

“I luvoo.”

“I know,” the Doctor replied, and Alex giggled.

“Canna seep wivoo?”

“Yeah, you can sleep with me,” the Doctor replied, letting the boy clamber up to lie flat on his chest. He wasn’t very heavy. That alarmed him. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, coughing again.

“You’re coughing.”

Alex didn’t reply to that, still finding a comfortable spot on his chest.

“Jack,” the Doctor suddenly said. “Jack.”

“Not now, Zak …” Jack muttered, turning his head away.

The Doctor tried not to think about a deeper meaning to that sentence. “Jack, wake up.”

Jack blinked open his eyes, seeing him. “Sorry, I was just having this great dream that Zak was …”

“Yes, I know,” the Doctor interrupted before the sentence could go any further. “Please can you check Alex?”

“What?” Jack’s eyes snapped to the boy on the Doctor’s chest. “Why?”

“He’s coughing and feels very light.”

“Okay,” Jack muttered, readjusting as quietly as he could so as not to wake the others. He took Alex in both hands, who nearly screamed at being taken from his dad but the Doctor managed to keep a weak hand on him. Jack sat him down on the floor, Alex reaching to hold his dad’s hand in both of his.

“Breathe in, Alex,” Jack ordered, and Alex did. “Breathe out.” The boy coughed, Jack pressing his ear to the boy’s chest. “In, and out.”

He checked the lymph nodes next, and looked at the Doctor. “Chest infection. And I’m guessing malnutrition. None of us are getting enough.”

The Doctor nodded in return, and with a grunt moved his arm up to Alex’s head. “Relax, Alex. Just go to sleep.”

The boy’s head lolled as he quickly dropped off.

“What are you doing?” Jack asked quietly, watching the Doctor as he kept his fingers on Alex’s temple, his eyes closed.

“Blocking him from myself,” the Doctor muttered. “If the other me feels him ill he’s going to come running.”

Jack nodded.

“This also means I won’t be able to feel him,” the Doctor said quietly. “If … If he’s in danger, I won’t know.”

Jack nodded again. “I’ll watch him.”

The Doctor opened his eyes and gazed at him for a while. “Thank you,” he said, and drew his hand away. Jack picked up the little Gallifreyan again, and placed him back on his father’s chest. The Doctor instinctively moved his hand to shield him.

Jack noted that. “You got feeling back?”

“I had to touch him.”

“Toby let you?”

“I wouldn’t care if he didn’t,” the Doctor muttered.

“Just be careful,” Jack said. “I know there’s only a couple of days left but that doesn’t mean we can relax. Rose is coming soon. She’s gonna end up straight in the firing line.”

The Doctor nodded as Jack got back into position, lifting the Doctor’s head back onto his chest.

“It’s funny,” the Doctor breathed.

“What’s funny?”

“I spent three weeks telling Rose that I believed in you. That you’d take whatever was dealt to you to protect Luke and Alex. I never thought that would turn out to be me taking it.”

“You know I would’ve. But I think he’s far more interested in you.”

“Lucky me,” the Doctor murmured.

“And I’ll look after Alex now you can’t feel him.”

“I know you will.”

“Get some sleep.”

The Doctor nodded, and closed his eyes. His double heartsbeat eventually synced with his son’s, beating together as one.

* * *

Jack woke up abruptly to the sound of shouting. He opened his eyes and immediately found soldiers flooding into the cell, one grabbing the Doctor’s foot and pulling him across the concrete. The Doctor, now awake too, quickly pushed Alex off and Jack instinctively launched forward to grab the child who had spontaneously burst into tears.

Any thoughts that the Doctor was going to be strung up again were dismissed when Jack realised he was heading for the door. The Doctor seemed to realise this too, flipping over onto his front to look at Jack, his eyes wide and desperate as he threw out his one working arm.

“Look after him!” he begged, and the door shut behind them.

* * *

The Doctor could do nothing but submit to being dragged out into the corridor. There wasn’t really much point fighting them, he knew, no matter how much he desperately wanted to kick them in the shins and leg it.

They came to a halt at the end of the corridor, where suddenly one of the UNIT soldiers approached him with a needle in hand. He didn’t need to guess twice what might be in that.

He reluctantly restrained any clever, witty lines, deciding they would only serve to annoy the people around him, and remained entirely subservient as the needle went into his neck.

* * *

When he woke up, he found himself lying on a cold, stone floor. He lifted his head, frowning, quickly realising he was not in the cell he’d become accustomed to, and he was not alone.

He looked up and saw three people sitting there. Well, ‘people’ was a bit of a stretch.

One of them was a man, at least, the Doctor assumed it was. He was nothing but skin on bones - all of his muscles seemingly vanished. The Doctor could see his ribs moving in his chest and the outlines on his internal organs below his skin. He couldn’t recognise his skull-like face, but he already knew who it was. Grimur Helgusun, the bodybuilder.

He was conscious, that much was for sure. Grimur’s eyes darted around for a moment before focusing on the Doctor. They looked like they were screaming.

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said quietly. “I’m so sorry.”

He looked at the next person - he knew him as well. Aray Sealy, the long distance runner. His body seemed to be intact, but his skin was blue. He was dead. 

The third person was a young girl, probably 18-20 years old. He didn’t recognise her, but she was most certainly dead too. Her limbs were red, purple and black - her blood clotted.

_ “Have you worked it out yet?” _

The Doctor looked to find an iPad, sitting on a stool against the wall just as it was in their cell. 

“Yes,” the Doctor muttered.

_ “Go on, then,” _ Toby invited.

The Doctor inclined his head to the girl. “You took her heart. That caused the blood in her to abruptly stop moving and everything inside her clotted. She died in minutes.” He looked to Aray Sealy. “This is Aray Sealy. You took his lungs. He died of asphyxiation, slowly and painfully,” he looked to the last in the line. “You took Grimur’s outer body muscle. He’s not dead yet.”

_ “Very good.” _

“What was her name?” the Doctor asked, looking at the girl.

_ “What does it matter?” _

“It matters to me.”

_ “Katie something. Shame she had to die, she had a very strong heart.” _

“Katie Harcombe,” the Doctor muttered. “Gymnast. 19-years-old. She was training for her first Olympics.”

_ “And I’m sure she would have done very well,”  _ Toby said, smiling inanely.

“You’re sick,” the Doctor croaked, staring at the girl’s face. “You’re disgusting, Toby.”

Bzz!

The Doctor didn’t regret that one.

_ “I’m just very clever.” _

“Clever? Yeah, I’ll give you that. Clever doesn’t make you brilliant though, Toby. You have to earn brilliance. And this? This is nowhere near it. These people died - and  _ are  _ dying - horrifically and you think that’s okay?”

Bzz!

_ “It’s like you’re trying to wind me up.” _

“I’m telling you what I’m seeing, Toby, and I don’t like it,” the Doctor grated.

_ “What are you going to do about it?”  _ Toby asked mockingly.  _ “You’re utterly powerless. You’ve lost feeling in your arms. You’re terminally ill and you’ve lost your time sense. You’re now a drug addict, and very soon you are going to die.” _

The Doctor just stared at the iPad, his eyes narrowed.

_ “I’m sorry, were you trying to forget your drug addiction?” _

The Doctor swallowed, and tried desperately to change the subject. “I don’t know much about you but you pride yourself on being human. You think what you’ve done here is even remotely humane? You’re not human. You’re using alien technology to build a body that’s human but what going inside that form isn’t going to be human. Your head, Toby, it’s filled with bitterness and rage. I know that feeling so well. Let me help you. I’m giving you a chance to make things right.”

_ “Or what? You’ll destroy me?” _

“Yes,” the Doctor whispered.

Bzz!

Toby laughed as the Doctor convulsed.  _ “You’re actually threatening me! Look at you. You’re pathetic. Look at what I can do to you if I really put my mind to it. The high and mighty Time Lord bound, broken, helpless and powerless to save even his own son as he sits there being electrocuted, his threats in whispers …” _

“You-”

Bzz!

_ “Able to be silenced at the touch of a button. You’re pathetic.” _

The Doctor didn’t say anything, just panting heavily for a moment before raising his head. “Where’s the Master?”

Toby grinned.  _ “You worked it out. Good boy. Tell me more.” _

“I don’t know what he’s doing allying himself with you because that isn’t his style, but although you’re clever, you can’t block out my time sense. It has to be him.”

_ “Let’s just say we’re the monkey and the organ grinder.” _

“You’re controlling him?”

_ “In a manner of speaking.” _

“You can’t control the Master. No matter how much torture, how much you try, he will never submit to you. You think you’re controlling him? He’s controlling you, Toby.”

_ “Is that another threat?” _

“It’s a warning.”

_ “If only you knew. It’s my crowning achievement. Do you remember the Year That Never Was, Doctor?” _

“I see that you’re mimicking it.”

_ “It’s Jack I feel sorry for. Poor Jack, he went through so much in that year, and now he’s had to watch it all again.” _

“Jack’s stronger than you think.”

_ “Is he? Not five minutes ago. Well, he did put up a fight.” _

The Doctor’s eyes shot wide open. “What!?”

Toby frowned, and then spontaneously smiled.  _ “Oh, you blocked yourself off,” _ he realised.  _ “You can’t feel your son anymore.” _

“What have you done!?”

_ “I warned you about that baby of yours crying.” _

“If you’ve  _ touched  _ Alex I’ll…”

Bzz!

_ “What? Convulse at me?” _

“What have you done!?” the Doctor yelled.

The door suddenly opened and soldiers flew inside, grabbing him.

“Toby!” the Doctor yelled desperately, but the iPad was turned off. He struggled, but there were far too many of them for him to have any sort of power. He was carried through a stone corridor, down some steps and down another corridor before finally ending up back in the familiar cell.

The soldiers let go of him and closed the door, where he immediately collapsed to the floor, unable to hold himself up. He looked up immediately, and saw Jack, lying on the floor clearly having been shot in a struggle a minimum of six times. Asha and Luke were in the corner, Clint hadn’t moved and there was Alex, lying on the stone floor completely still and pale.

“No!” the Doctor cried, forcing himself to crawl forward to his son. His senses were completely backwards, Alex felt perfectly fine but there he was, anything but fine. He rested his fingers on his neck for a pulse and got one, slow and threaded. He checked his hearts next. Only one was beating.

“They just st-stormed in,” Asha whispered, terrified.

“What happened? What has Toby done to him!?” the Doctor demanded to know furiously.

“They gave him something … to stop him crying,” Asha croaked.

“What? What did he give him!?”

“I don’t know,” Asha muttered. “I think … I think it was a tranquiliser.”

The Doctor’s levels of panic seemed to spontaneously erupt to higher than before. “He’s allergic, he’s  _ allergic!  _ Alex, Alex!”

He shook the little boy’s shoulders, but he didn’t so much as bat an eyelid. His chest had stopped moving, and a quick check told the Doctor that he had stopped breathing.

“No, no, no!” the Doctor shouted, checking his hearts again before beginning CPR one-handed. “Please, breathe!”

It took what felt like forever to the Doctor until Alex abruptly began to breathe again. The Doctor practically fell onto him, hugging him as tightly as he could manage as Jack gasped, coming back to life behind him. The Time Lord couldn’t stop the tears then.

“Oh god, Doc, I’m so sorry, I tried …” Jack said, wrapping his arms around the Doctor as the Time Lord shook. The Doctor seemed to ignore him, just holding his little boy. He was dying, the Doctor knew that, and he couldn’t save him. He needed help.

“Toby,” the Doctor suddenly croaked.

Toby appeared immediately.  _ “What?” _

What came out of the Doctor’s mouth took everyone in the cell by surprise. “Please,” he whispered, “please help him. Get him to the medical base. Just get him treatment. Please don’t leave him to die. I’ll do anything.”

_ “Anything?” _

“Anything,” the Doctor confirmed, still not having moved.

_ “Okay, you’re on.” _

* * *

“My name is the Doctor,” the Doctor said to the camera pointed at him. “I’m an alien from the planet Gallifrey. I’m 900 years old. I have two hearts, a binary vascular system, extra resistant bones and an all around far more superior system. I even have the ability to regenerate when I die, so I come back as a completely new person. 

“I … took all of those people. I’ve ... killed them. This is me, taking full responsibility for what’s happened. I … I hate your planet and I hate your species. Gallifreyans are superior in every way. You are all stupid humans and I will destroy you. James Stone was right about everything he said, and I’m not surprised it took so long for you to realise. Your planet will be history very soon, so start saying goodbye.”

_ “Thank you very much,”  _ Toby said.  _ “Your son is in safe hands.” _

The Doctor could feel nothing but sickening hatred for Toby as the soldiers led him back to the cell.


	19. 10th June 2013, 10:00:33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor breaks down before Rose arrives, and the truth of his state of mind after Volag-Noc comes to the surface.

The Doctor had sunk into complete silence. Autopilot mode, Jack called it. When his mind whirred and his body did nothing. Jack took solace in the fact that when he did that, that meant the tables were about to turn. The Doctor was going into full Doctor mode, an escape plan being whipped up in his head. 

Jack told himself that, but when Jack looked at his face, he saw nothing but defeat. 

Maybe this silence wasn’t so hopeful. Maybe it was a silence of utter desolation. He’d seen it before, many times before, during that year. He’d hoped to never see it again.

But Alex was gone, and the Doctor couldn’t feel him anymore. They only had it on Toby’s word that Alex was in a good place and being looked after, and Toby’s word wasn’t much reassurance.

No amount of ‘he’ll be okay’ and ‘he’s tough’ had had any effect on the Doctor. Jack had eventually just shut up when he had absolutely no response. 

When the door opened and the soldiers flooded in, the Doctor didn’t so much as flinch. But they weren’t going for him, and the Doctor seemed to know it. They went for Clint, and dragged him out of the door.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked quickly as the iPad turned on.

_ “Rose Marion Tyler,”  _ was all Toby responded.

“What about her?” Jack prompted, glancing nervously at the Doctor.

_ “Sticking her nose in where it’s not wanted.” _

The iPad switched off.

“What’s he talking about?” Jack directed at the Doctor, anxious. “Is Rose in danger?”

“... Rose just scanned to find Alex,” the Doctor muttered.

“Where did they take Clint?”

For the first time in a long while, the Doctor connected his gaze to Jack. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do,” Jack shot back.

The Doctor sighed, and looked at the floor again. “In twenty minutes his body's discovered floating on the Thames with the words, ‘do nothing’ carved into his chest. We see it at around half past on the news. She doesn’t tell me what she did. Me and Rose argue, I collapse, and tonight she disappears. To here.”

“He’ll kill her.”

“Don’t you think I  _ know  _ that!?” the Doctor suddenly burst out, his eyes snapping back to Jack, though now they were on fire. 

“Please don’t argue,” Asha suddenly said quietly.

There was a brief, tense silence before the Doctor suddenly sniffed, and Jack could immediately see a tear roll down his face.

“No, no, no,” Jack said quickly, his eyes wide. “Don’t you dare.” 

He moved over to the Doctor, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other cupping his face. The Doctor just looked at him, trembling.

“The Master couldn’t break you and we’re not letting Toby do it either,” Jack said quickly, kissing his forehead. “Please don’t cry.”

“This is all m-my fault,” the Doctor sobbed. “It’s always my f-fault…”

“No it’s not, this is all Toby,” Jack told him. “He’s done all this. Not you.”

“He’s got my son, J-Jack…”

“And that doesn’t mean a thing. He still needs Alex for a reason…”

“He’s helpl-less…”

“He’s not, he’s okay.”

“Oh god, Jack,” the Doctor croaked, and with his utterance came fresh tears.

“He’s okay, he’s okay,” Jack repeated, holding his best friend close. “He’s okay, he’s okay…”

The Doctor just continued to cry, and with every sob Jack’s heart sank a little lower in his chest.

* * *

The Doctor didn’t speak until Rose arrived the next morning.

She was shoved into the cell by hefty guards, and would have hit the floor if Jack hadn’t caught her in time. She quickly righted herself, checked the cell, and almost immediately focused on the Doctor.

“How did you get here? Are you okay? Where’s Alex? Is everyone else okay?” she asked within the space of two seconds, dropping down next to her husband, alarmed at the state of him. She reached up to the collar, but Jack quickly stopped her. 

“Don’t, he’ll get electrocuted,” he explained quickly.

She frowned, quickly moving her hand away from the collar. “Doctor? Why aren’t you talkin’?”

The Doctor finally looked at her, tears in his eyes. “... He took him,” he finally croaked.

“Who took who? Someone took Alex?”

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor whispered, and lowered his gaze.

“What!?”

Jack knelt down next to them, looking at Rose. “He’s been crying a lot. Toby, he’s the one that did all this, he’s got control of Unit. The Unit guards charged in here, I tried … I tried to stop them but they just shot me and gave him a tranquilliser to shut him up while the Doctor was out of the room. Alex … reacted badly. The Doctor had to get him up to the medical centre, so … he did a deal. He had to take full responsibility for abducting the people. On camera.”

Rose looked briefly between them for the moment, before quickly settling on the Doctor. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Alex is in the medical facility, yeah? He’s bein’ treated. Nothing else matters.”

“Toby could be doing anything to him …”

“He’s okay,” Rose said quickly, hugging him. “He’s okay.”

The Doctor started to cry again.

“No,” she said quickly, kissing him. “We’re stronger than this.”

She glanced at Jack, who offered a supportive smile. “He’s fine,” he said. “He’s made out of the Doctor and Rose.”

That didn’t seem to help the Doctor. Rose and Jack both knew that this was a very bad sign. The Doctor was giving up.

“Look.” She suddenly drew back, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small, sealed jar. “Brax’ll kill me, but I got some.”

The Doctor looked up through wet eyes, and saw the jar. Immediately he began to salivate, trying desperately to stop himself snatching it from her but he couldn’t stop himself, wrenching off the cap with his teeth and downing the precious substance.

Jack was frowning at the Doctor’s uncharacteristic reaction. “Rose, what the hell is that?”

“Maghmar,” Rose said quietly, staring at her husband as he stuck his tongue into the jar in desperation to get the last drops. “It’s… it’s cure-all. It’s keeping the alere flamman under control.”

Jack continued to stare at the Doctor, clearly alarmed.

Rose just nodded at his expression. “It’s extremely addictive… but decayin’ too. It’s our last chance.”

Jack just swore quietly, still staring at the Doctor as he began to heal. The wreck his body had become under Toby’s control was suddenly fixing. The marks around his mouth disappeared, the burns, bruises, cuts and sores over his body were healing too, the light ones disappearing whilst the dark, angry bruises lightened up. 

“Oh god,” Rose moaned.

“What?”

“It’s not completely healing him.”

“That’s bad?”

Rose didn’t need to answer that. “Is this torture?”

Jack nodded solemnly. Rose didn’t reply to that, in fact, she hadn’t really needed to ask. She kissed her husband once more, willing his face to gain some colour but it was staying resolutely white. He was now a perfect representation of the death that was about to overwhelm him.

The door suddenly opened, and the soldiers flooded in. The Doctor quickly wrapped his arm around Rose instinctively, but they weren’t going for them. They ushered out Luke, Asha and Jack, with the latter giving the Doctor and Rose a quick thumbs up as he mouthed the words,  _ I’ll find Alex _ and left. The door closed, and it was just the Doctor and Rose.

Rose sighed, looking down at his misaligned and lacerated wrists. “What’s been happening? How did you get here, Doctor?”

The Doctor looked at her, those beautiful eyes dark with sickness and wet from tears. “Tomorrow Toby destroys Torchwood, takes me and puts me back in the past. I’ve been here for three weeks.”

“You were here all the time,” Rose realised.

He nodded.

“God,” Rose muttered, making herself comfortable beside the Time Lord. “I was gonna call you.”

“Please do.”

“What?”

“Because right now, he’s going crazy,” the Doctor replied quietly. “Don’t mention me.”

Rose nodded, pulling out the phone and calling him. “Doctor? … Are you okay? ... Please calm down.”

Rose nervously glanced at the Doctor beside her, who nodded.

“Look … I traced the biosignatures. Brax didn’t know what he was doin’, it’s not his fault, I manipulated him a bit. Please don’t be mad at him … Yesterday afternoon, just before you collapsed. I found out … look, I was gonna tell you, but then Clint died… His murder, it was warnin’ me, Doctor. That message was for me. I couldn’t tell anyone. Are you okay?”

Rose sighed at his reply, biting her lip. 

“I can’t, they’ll know, Doctor. They killed Clint five minutes after I looked at the biorhythms. They know I know where they are. If I told anyone next time it could be Alex, yeah? Are you okay?”

Rose flinched slightly at his reply, reaching out to take the Doctor’s hand for strength.

“I’m not mad at you for not doin’ anythin’, yeah? I wasn’t leavin’ you, I love you. I just had to get away when no one would notice … It’s too late.”

Her eyes suddenly shot wide open, her grip on the Doctor’s hand tightening. 

“No!” she cried quickly. “They’ll kill them if you do anythin’, they’ve got eyes on us, Doctor . Trust me, please . Stay calm, you’ve gotta stay calm.”

Rose suddenly held her hand over the phone, sniffing. The Doctor beside her reached up to hold her, and she fell onto him, her head on his numbed shoulder.

“I’ll be fine, yeah?” she said, and then suddenly looked at the Doctor with wet eyes, hand over the phone again. “Oh god. He’s freakin’ out.”

“Make him promise not to follow you.”

She nodded, taking her hand off of the phone again. “Promise you won’t follow me . Promise me right now … Don’t you trust me? ... Then trust me, I’m gonna be fine. Think I’ve learnt a thing or two about survivin’,” she finished, glancing at the Doctor again and giving him a ghost of smile. “Promise?” she directed down the phone.

After a long pause, she finally nodded at the Doctor to signify the job was done. “Thank you. I’ll call you later if I can, yeah? ... I love you. Bye.”

She waited for a brief moment, then hung up. She dropped the phone and hugged the Doctor tightly, sniffing away the tears.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” she said in a whisper. “I’m sorry I did that to you.”

“It’s okay,” the Doctor muttered.

“It’s not, God, I’m sorry,” she said again. “He’s so upset. He thinks I’m gonna die.”

“Well you’re not, and I’m him, and I’m fine,” the Doctor told her.

She looked at him, still with tears in her eyes. Whatever she was thinking she didn’t voice. Instead she pulled back and adjusted his hair, running a hand down through his growing beard. Then she stared at him.

“What?” he asked seriously.

“Smile,” she said, breaking into a grin.

He didn’t. 

Her expression quickly fell. “Don’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up.”

“Yeah, you are. All I’ve seen of you, all you’ve done … You didn’t give up. Even when I have. When I told you to regenerate. You promised me we’d find something, again and again. Even when I was freakin’ out about Alex, you never gave up on Jack lookin’ after him. Why the hell are you startin’ now?”

“I’m not giving up,” he repeated more firmly.

“Stop denyin’ it, we’ve been together for five years. I can read you like a book. And you know what I’m seein’ now? Not the Doctor, that’s for sure. Not the man I’ve loved since I was nineteen.”

The Doctor sighed.

“I know it hurts, but we’ll get out of this.”

The Doctor finally opened his mouth, tears back in his eyes. “If Toby killed him ... I’d never forgive myself.”

“He’s not gonna,” Rose told him with complete conviction. 

The Doctor nodded, but he didn’t seem convinced. “Why aren’t you giving up?” he suddenly asked.

“You know how you believe in Jack? I believe in Alex. You should believe in him too.”

“But you didn’t before.”

“Because we weren’t together with him. This bad guy knows if he does anythin’ to Alex then we won’t just sit here doin’ nothin’. We’ll make his life hell. As long as the four of us are together we’ll be okay.”

“Four?” the Doctor suddenly questioned.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“You said four.”

“Four what?”

“The four of us. You said the  _ four  _ of us.”

Rose’s eyes shot wide open. “... Oh.”

“What?” he asked but she didn’t reply, gaping like a fish. She didn’t need to say anything as he panned her over, and finally arrived at her belly. He looked at her face, then her belly, then her face, then her belly, and finally back at her face, absolutely stunned. “You … can’t be …” he garbled out. “I’m … not … I can’t …”

Rose finally looked at him in the eyes, and smiled. “It’s a boy. I found out last night.”

“But I’m not … fertile …”

“Definitely yours.”

“But I haven’t had the symptoms …”

“You haven’t? You’ve been throwin’ up every morning.”

“No, I …” He suddenly paused, frowning as he thought about that. “I thought that was the Alere Flamman ...”

She leaned forward and kissed him. “I said you don’t give up. Don’t think your sperm do either.”

“But this … it can’t happen.”

She suddenly became sombre, nodding. “I know. We’ll abort.”

“Oh, Rose,” he whined, lolling his head on the wall.

“I know,” she said. “We’ll be okay. We’re always okay.”

He nodded, still staring at her belly. He reached forward with his working arm and pressed his palm to her tummy. She immediately took it, lifting it away carefully.

“I love you,” he said quietly.

“Don’t blame ya,” was all she responded, and the Doctor finally smiled. “Gotcha,” she said, grinning. He laughed at that.

“I missed you,” he told her. “I’m sorry for not doing anything.”

“I’m not mad,” she insisted. “Go to sleep.”

“I can’t go to sleep.”

“Don’t be stupid,” she said. “You haven’t been gettin’ enough anyway.”

The Doctor looked at her. “... You know?”

“Of course I do.”

“How d’you know?”

“A couple of nights … I pretended to go to sleep. Then I waited a bit, looked at you, and you were starin’ up at the ceilin’, mutterin’ to yourself not to go to sleep. Then I moved like I was wakin’ up and you shut your eyes, like you didn’t want me to know.”

“I do that sometimes,” he said defensively.

She didn’t even acknowledge his response. “It was Volag-Noc, wasn’t it?”

“What?”

“You had cuts on your arms after Volag-Noc.”

“What does that prove?” he snapped, annoyed.

“You did that for sensation, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“We looked it up,” she told him calmly. “Twelve years in solitary confinement. Less than that drives people completely insane, human or alien. But Martha put it all together. I knew you’d been a bit off so I asked her. She did the research. People in solitary confinement want sensation, and pain’s the best. So you gave yourself a bit of pain every day so you didn’t go completely mad. But it’s caught up with you, yeah?”

He wasn’t denying it any longer, just staying completely silent.

“PTSD,” she continued. “I know you’re s’posed to be this invincible Time Lord and you try, but I’ve known you way too long. You had it after the Time War, and I helped you through it. I’ll help you through this one too.”

“So Martha knows?” he croaked.

“Everyone knows,” she replied honestly. “Except Brax, cos he would’ve done somethin’ about it. But we’ve all been watchin’ you, makin’ sure you’re okay. I didn’t wanna start it, I wanted you to ask me. Sorry it came up like this.”

She half-expected him to turn away, but he didn’t. “I … I’m scared,” was what he said instead.

“You’re scared if you go to sleep and wake up you’ll still be in that hole, yeah? You’re scared that when you wake up you’d have lost your sanity?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not, okay? You’re sane, and you’re with us.”

“... So why do I still feel cold?” he whispered.

She hugged him tightly. “It’ll be okay. Just go to sleep.”

“But …”

“Don’t argue, please,” she begged. “I’m gonna be here when you wake up. I won’t stop huggin’ you.”

“I …”

“I’ll still be here,” she interrupted smoothly. “I’m not gonna leave you.”

“... Promise?”

She nodded, still holding him. “Promise. Go to sleep. Have a good dream for once. I’ll wake you up if I think you’re not. Then we’ll get the hell outta here and find this memory.”

He finally resigned, resting his head on her. “I’m sorry,” he said honestly.

“Don’t be stupid, you’ve got nothin’ to be sorry about,” she told him patiently. “Now close your eyes before  _ I’m _ the one that goes mental,” she added jokingly. 

He smiled a little at that, and did. It took a long, long time to let himself relax completely, and she didn’t - even for a brief second - relax her grip on him. For the first time in a long while, warmth spread through his hearts and he was able to let go, dropping into a nice dream.


	20. 11th June 2013, 12:40:22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor confronts Toby.

The Doctor woke up an hour later, Rose’s arms still fixed around him. He raised his head, a little groggy, only to find the others were back in the cell.

Rose noticed him immediately. “Okay?” she asked, still not letting go.

“Yeah,” he replied, blinking a few times. He looked more intently at the occupants of the room - there was Jack, looking solemn, Luke was also smiling, and Asha was …

“Asha?” the Doctor quickly asked, looking at the women. She was quite pale, curled up in the corner coughing.

“Hello,” she said weakly, looking up at him. “You look better.”

The Doctor pulled away from Rose’s arms, crawling one-handed towards the woman and checking her over. “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer the question directly, “it’s odd,” she said, looking at the floor. “The only thing I ever had to be proud of. I’ve never been ill. Never.”

The Doctor looked at Jack, who confirmed his suspicions with a nod. Toby had taken her immune system. He looked back at Asha, resting his hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she said, sniffing.

“I’ll fix you,” the Doctor said quickly. “I’ve got the right medicines. We just need to get your back to the Tardis, my ship.”

“I don’t think I-”

“Yes, you can make it,” the Doctor replied firmly. “Too many good people have died at Toby’s hand and I swear to you that you’re not next on the list.”

Asha didn’t reply to that; just started up in a horrible, chesty coughing fit, shielding her mouth with her hand. When she was done, they could both see the drips of blood in her palm. The Doctor and Asha both knew his promises were without merit. She didn’t have long. There was no time left.

“Is there anythin’ we can do for you?” Rose suddenly asked, moving to crouch beside the Doctor.

“I have a question.”

“What d’you wanna know?” Rose asked.

“Toby, he calls you an alien. You said about Gallifrey ...?”

“I’m from another world, Asha,” the Doctor replied honestly.

“What does that mean?”

The Doctor nodded, and made himself comfortable. “Just think of this world, the grass underneath your feet, the beautiful sky, the lakes, the endless woods and everything else, got it?”

She nodded.

“Now imagine the grass is red. The sky; orange. The woods; silver. And those lakes? Golden brown. That’s where I come from.”

Asha looked at him, tears in her eyes. “It sounds beautiful.”

The Doctor smiled. “It was.”

“So you were born on a different cloud.”

The Doctor’s smile increased. “I like that. Yes, I was.”

“Are there lots of you?”

The Doctor nodded. “There’s millions of worlds out there, Asha. The universe, teeming with life.”

“I am glad I got to see some of it,” she said, before launching into another coughing fit.

The Doctor nodded. “... I’m sorry.”

“It’s not ... your fault,” Asha told him. “I have learnt so much in … in my time here. Perhaps too much. Perhaps this is God’s g-gift that I … that I have seen these things with my own e-eyes before I die.”

The Doctor nodded solemnly, resting his fingers on her pulse. “Perhaps.”

“Don’t ... give up,” Asha told him. “You are … n-not bad. No matter what ... Toby f-forced you to say. Your soul is pure.”

The Doctor nodded. “Thank you.”

“No, thank  _ you,”  _ she insisted, and coughed again. She was going. The Doctor could feel her pulse weakening.

“Good bye, Asha,” he said quietly.

“Do ... not be a-afraid. God ... watches over m-my ... soul ...”

She breathed out, her eyes suddenly staring into nothing. Her pulse was no longer there.

He checked her heart. Nothing. So he reached up and gently drew her eyes closed.

“Oh god,” Rose muttered and hugged him. He responded in kind.

The door suddenly burst open. Everyone quickly looked up, only to find Jimmy standing there, surrounded by UNIT guards. He stared at Rose with a horrible, evil smile on his face. Jack tried to dive for him but one of the soldiers caught him, and he and Luke were quickly restrained.

“Oh god, no!” Rose screamed, clinging desperately onto the Doctor, burying her head into his chest with her legs curled right up. The Doctor wrapped himself around her, staring ferociously at Jimmy.

“Don’t  _ touch  _ her,” he spat.

Jimmy just raised his hand, and pressed down on the remote control. Electricity immediately coursed through the Doctor, and Jimmy kept his thumb down on the button as the soldiers grabbed Rose and tore her away from her screaming husband.

“Don’t you dare!” Jack yelled, but he couldn’t move, pinned down by the soldiers.

“I waited  _ too fuckin’ long  _ for this!” Jimmy swore, grabbing Rose’s arm.

“No!” Rose cried, looking back at the Doctor in desperation. He had stopped being electrocuted, now throwing himself forward, his entire body shaking, to Rose.

“Get off!!” he shouted ferociously.

Jimmy hit the button again. More screams tore out of the Doctor, throwing him back onto the floor as he contorted in pure agony.

“No, Doctor, help me!” Rose shouted desperately, tears coursing down her face.

“R-Ro-o-os-s-s-e,” the Doctor stammered out through the electric, “d-d-do-o-n…”

He collapsed completely, and Jimmy finally let go of the button before he led the way out, dragging Rose behind him. The soldiers flooded out and Jack immediately attacked the door.

“Jimmy!” he roared. “You’re dead!”

Jimmy appeared at the window, and threw in the remote control through the bars, grinning. “Press it, it’s fun.”

Jack swore at him, throwing out a hand to grab the man but Jimmy backed away too quickly. Soon there were only Rose’s screams echoing through the corridor until they disappeared into nothing.

Jack didn’t give up. He threw himself at the door repeatedly, pushing and pulling. He didn’t notice Luke scramble for the remote control, moving back to the Doctor and examining it. He pressed a button, and the collar clicked off. Luke pulled it away from the Time Lord’s neck, revealing it was covered in bruises, cuts, burns and sores from where it had rested for three weeks.

The Doctor’s eyes snapped open with abrupt consciousness. “Rose!”

“He took her!” Jack said quickly, diving to grab his best friend to pull him up in one swift movement. “Where’s …”

They both looked at Luke, who was holding the collar in both hands.

“Thank you!” the Doctor said quickly, holding his neck as he hopped back to the door, throwing himself at it. It didn’t budge.

“No! Jack!” the Doctor turned to him, begging.

“We’ll get it open!” Jack shouted back, ramming it again with his shoulder.

“Thete?”

In a whirl of panic, the Doctor and Jack both looked through the window. Brax.

“Brax, open the door!!” the Doctor yelled. Brax disappeared from view, followed by the sounds of grunting and clanking.

“Open the  _ door!”  _ Jack demanded.

“I’m trying!” Brax insisted, before the door suddenly opened and the Doctor burst out.

“Thete!?” Brax cried, but he was already around the corner.

* * *

His foot was screaming in pain, his entire body was on fire, the alere flamman reaching its height of power. But that wasn’t enough to stop him. He pounded down the corridor, following the bond to find Rose.

“Stop or we’ll fire!” a voice suddenly yelled from behind him, and he turned to see a platoon of five UNIT guards running up behind him.

He completely ignored them, diving around the corner just as the gunfire began, bullets planting themselves in the wall near his head. They were hot on his tail.

He kept running, ignoring every pain in his body until the bond became so strong he stopped, and ran into a side room. He waited for a brief moment for the sound of footsteps pursuing him, but they seemed to have stopped.

He finally turned, and saw her lying on the floor in front of him.

“Rose!” he cried, dropping next to her. He turned her over carefully to reveal her head was covered in blood. He quickly checked for a pulse - she was there, strong and regular.

“No!”

He looked up sharply, but the voice was coming from a room further in. It was a voice he knew. It was a voice he now hated beyond belief.

He got up, and walked boldly through the doorway, tensed ready for a fight. It was Jimmy Stone, holding a gun against his chin, pointing up to his own head.

“P-please,” Jimmy burst out, tears rolling down his face as he stared at the Doctor, unblinking. There was pure terror on his face, his entire body shaking. “I d-don’t want t-to die …”

“I’m not killing  _ you,”  _ the Doctor grated.

“No … no … please …” Jimmy continued, seemingly oblivious to the Doctor’s presence. “I w-won’t tell any … anyone, I sw-swear, I swear … I th-thought we were m-mates, Toby, I th-thought ... No … no … NO!!”

Jimmy pulled the trigger and hit the floor, leaving only the smell of gun residue in the air.

Toby laughed.

The Doctor fumed, scooping up the gun from Jimmy’s still twitching body and through the next door.

The sight was so familiar. Banks of computers and a chair in the middle, someone with red hair turned to face away from him.

The Doctor raised the gun.

“Turn and face me, Toby!” he demanded.

Toby completely ignored his demand. “Hello, Trevor.”

The Doctor frowned, thrown by the name, but didn’t say anything.

“It’s a joke name, I think. That's what Jack calls you. Trevor, the Doctor's dark side. Cold blooded, the killer of his own race. The side of the Doctor that can quite happily murder me; the side Rose Tyler fears. I quite like Trevor, actually. I modelled myself on him. Oh, you wouldn’t know. I learnt so much from you, Doctor, and you still have no fucking idea who I am, do you?”

“Tell me.”

“And give you the satisfaction of a complete adventure? Everything tied up, packaged up in a little box tied up with string and a bow, high-five TARDIS crew and sail off into the sunset? Think not. Besides, I’m not done with you. We’ve got so much to come.”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Did you ever wonder who sold you out to the Proclamation that caused your entire family to be imprisoned?”

“You…!”

“I’m just about to do it. I love time travel. Got myself a vortex manipulator from a Time Agent you’re about to meet and since then I’ve been all over the place.”

“You picked up the recording from the Proclamation,” the Doctor realised. “The one that made them create the Echo generation in the first place. You’re going to take the recording back to them in the past, so they’ll watch it and start the chain of events.”

“Correct.”

“Then you became the doctor heading the Unit children’s ward a couple of years ago when my daughter was admitted. You killed Dr Johnston. You invited the Der Kindestod species in, didn’t you? Or should I call them the Cezat species? You found them in the Proclamation - test subjects - gave them a ship and a purpose. You set the whole thing up, knowing I’d walked into the trap willingly to save my daughter. But it went wrong, didn’t it? The Cezat species had ideas of their own. They sold me to the highest bidder.”

“Correct. I followed them to a rendezvous point where they met the Sycorax to exchange you, waited until you were out of the picture, and then blew them all apart.”

“And then you became a hairdresser.”

Toby laughed. “Actually, that was first. And why would I do that?”

“Tell me.”

“I thought you were smart?”

“I’m not proving myself to you,” the Doctor snapped, the words acid on his tongue. “What have you done with the Master?”

“Oh, what  _ haven’t  _ I done? He’s a lot of fun. You two should hang out more.”

The Doctor reaffirmed his grip on the gun, tightening his jaw. “Jimmy didn’t need to die.”

“Him?” Toby sounded surprised. “Why do you give a shit about him? He had it coming. Low-life, greasy scum with a criminal history and half a brain cell. Frankly, I did the world a favour. Drug addicts generally aren’t too liked by society. Oh, sorry. Present company excepted. Though frankly, I’m not so sure any one likes you anymore. I’ve really stuffed up the little Earth thing you had going, didn’t I? And God knows what I let Jimmy do to Rose before I made him shoot himself ...”

The Doctor checked the chamber was loaded.

“Oh, is that it? Going to kill me, now? Go ahead. I’m not bothered.”

The Doctor stepped forward, pressing the tip of the gun to the back of Toby’s head.

“Get on with it. I’ve got things to do.”

The Doctor fumed, and within one second he moved the gun away from Toby’s head and shot at a small black electronic cassette player sitting on the computer desk. It burst out in a fizz of sparks, catapulting off of the surface and into the wall as suddenly all the Doctor could hear was Toby laughing, electrically distorted through the speakers of the destroyed player.

He spun the chair around and there he was; Toby’s body, already long dead with a gunshot wound up through his own head, taped upright to the chair.

“Better start running, Doctor …” Toby’s voice continued, warped and distorted on the pulverised tape player. “Seven billion ... people on this planet ... want ... you dead …”

The tape died.

The Doctor screamed in frustration, dropping the gun with a clatter. “This isn’t over, Toby!” he shouted into the abyss, turned, and ran back to Rose. 

Brax came in through the opposite door, stopping dead at the sight of Rose. “Rose!”

“Get her safe,” the Doctor said quickly, making to the door.

“Thete, what …”

“I’ve gotta find him.”

“Alex? Jack’s getting Alex, just get back to …”

“Get Rose and everyone still alive in this place back to the Tardis!” the Doctor ordered.

“Thete, for Rassilon’s sake will you  _ stop  _ running away from me!?” the Doctor heard him cry, but he was already gone, stumbling back up the corridor.

“Master!” he shouted. “Master, where are you!?”

Somebody suddenly stepped out in front of his path, further up the corridor. He recognised the face. Clint Mendoza … or rather, Toby’s new body. Ripped with muscle, a beautiful face and perfectly coiffed hair. He grinned at the Doctor, waved, and hit his vortex manipulator, disappearing on the spot. And standing behind him was the Master, utterly rigid.

“Master,” the Doctor said quickly. “Come with me. Whatever he’s done to you, just come with me.”

The Master’s voice came out as barely a croak. “I can’t.”

“Please come with me,” the Doctor begged. “I can save you.”

The Master gazed at him for a moment longer, and finally walked up to him, a foot away.

“That’s it. Just come with me,” the Doctor begged, reaching up to take his arm …

“I’m sorry,” the Master croaked, and punched him in the face. The Doctor hit the floor, stunned for a moment before he managed to look up and saw the Master disappear around the corner.

“Master!” he cried, but what came around the corner instead was another lot of UNIT guards. The Doctor forced himself up, and started running again.

* * *

The door of the TARDIS burst open just as Brax was getting ready to fly away, the Doctor tumbling inside. He barely acknowledged the people around him, his eyes focusing straight on Brax.

“Where’s Rose!?”

“Infirmary,” Brax answered, slightly stunned. “Where …”

“Alex!?” the Doctor asked, interrupting him.

“They’re not back yet …”

“Get him straight there.”

“We will,” Gwen said, stepping forward to take his arm. “Let Martha check you over.”

“I’m fine, are the abductees there too?”

“What?” Brax asked, confused.

“The abductees!” the Doctor said impatiently. “Did you take them to the infirmary?”

Brax’s eyes disconnected from his. “Thete …”

“What?”

“No one was alive, Doctor,” Gwen said gently in the knife-edge silence that followed.

The Doctor frowned. “What? Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she replied sadly. “Now let Martha look at you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You aren’t fine, Doctor,” Rhys said honestly. “Go and see Martha.”

“I’m fine!” the Doctor insisted.

“For god’s sake Doctor!” Jackie suddenly blurted out, storming over to him. “Go and bloody see Martha!”

The Doctor backed off. “Look, I’m fine, why is everyone being so …”

Jackie reached into her bag and pulled out a hand mirror, thrusting it in his face. “Look!” she exclaimed.

He stared at his own reflection. The area under his eyes were jet black, mixed with red and purple. His skin was completely white apart from the dark lines patterning up his face, running around the dry, cracked skin. He had grown a slight beard, but it was somehow only stubble, forcing its way out through reluctant red, partially swollen skin. His lips were also dry, cracked and swollen, and were more blue than red. He looked like a corpse.

He looked at Jackie, suddenly at a loss for what to say. Eventually he opened his mouth, but all that came out was a low-pitched, “oh.”

“Go and see Martha,” Gwen said gently, the others all nodding furiously behind her.

He nodded, running a hand self-consciously through his hair as though it would make his appearance any better.

“What happened to Toby?” Brax asked suddenly.

“Jimmy’s dead, Toby got away,” the Doctor replied shortly, quietly.

Brax nodded. “Get to the infirmary. I’ll get Jack and Alex straight there.”

The Doctor nodded again. “Get us into the vortex as soon as you can.”

Brax affirmed with a nod. “I will,” he said, before reaching into his pocket and holding out the bottle of Maghmar. There was just a little left. The Doctor took it and downed it quickly, before grabbing Jackie’s mirror and checking himself. His face was partially smoothing over and his lips reddened a little and his eyes lightened slightly to turn him into something that was a bit more acceptable to look at. He gave the mirror back to Jackie, shot one last look at them all, and headed to the infirmary.


	21. 11th June 2013, 13:04:41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The situation on Earth worsens. Everyone has to make a huge decision.

Martha was in the infirmary with Sarah and Luke - the latter was being checked over by her. Ianto was still in bed. The Doctor offered them a smile and a wave, before his eyes connected to Rose sitting up in bed.

“Rose!” the Doctor said quickly, moving to her. She looked up at him, immediately smiling.

“Where’s Alex?” she asked quickly.

“Jack’s getting him,” the Doctor told her, taking a seat on the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay,” she replied, hugging him. 

“What did Jimmy do?” he asked over her shoulder.

“He knocked me out.”

“And that’s it?”

“Yeah,” Rose replied honestly. 

“Okay,” the Doctor breathed, pulling her into a one-handed hug again.

“What happened to him?” Rose asked quietly when they pulled apart.

“Toby killed him.”

“Oh,” Rose muttered. “... Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“What about Toby?”

“He got away.”

She seemed to stiffen slightly. “Did you let him? Get away?”

“He did it by himself. I didn’t have a chance to stop him.”

“Okay,” Rose muttered as the door suddenly flung open to reveal Jack standing there holding an apparently stiff Alex in his arms.

“Got him!” Jack shouted. “Need some help, here!”

Martha was up as quick as she could be. “Put him on that bed,” she gestured, picking up a stethoscope enroute.

“You’d better be quick, I took a million tubes out of him,” Jack said.

Sarah immediately followed. “Can I help?” she asked quickly.

“We need saline and cooling blankets,” Martha said quickly, already checking the boy’s hearts. He was sweating from fever, his breath coming in rapid gasps.

“I’ll get them,” Sarah declared immediately, running off to the cupboard.

“Okay, he’s only got one heart working,” Martha said quickly, looking at the Doctor. “Is he in danger if it doesn’t start again soon?”

“The strain his body’s under - the longer it’s dead the longer he’ll take to recover,” the Doctor replied quickly, placing his fingers on the boy’s temple to open his bond channels again. The moment he did he was suddenly hit by Alex’s emotions like a truck - fear, confusion and pain. 

It spurred the Doctor.

“We can’t be rough with him,” Martha insisted.

“We could use the third heart,” the Doctor suggested. “It’s a machine, non-invasive; takes on the role of the second heart.”

“That sounds good.”

“Ja-” the Doctor turned to him, but the ex-Time Agent was already running off to get it.

Rose was sitting up, desperate to see through the throng. “Alex!?”

“He’ll be fine,” Martha assured her.

“I’ve got them,” Sarah said, coming back with the saline and cooling blanket. Martha took them immediately, putting them to use as the Doctor hovered a hand over Alex’s mouth.

“He’s struggling to breath, maybe there’s an obstruction,” he said.

“Vomit?” Martha suggested.

“Could be … I need the scanner.”

“I’ll get it,” Sarah said, and rushed off again.

Rose suddenly got up, catching Martha’s attention.

“Don’t,” she warned, finishing attaching the saline to the boy.

“I need to see,” Rose insisted, holding her head as she quickly took a place beside Alex, taking his hand. He looked so tiny in the big bed. “Love you.”

Sarah came back with the scanner, handing it to the Doctor.

“Hurry up Jack,” the Doctor ordered, already scanning his son’s chest and throat.

“Yes,” Sarah said breathlessly, running off again.

“Nothing’s coming up, must be dyspnoea,” the Doctor fathomed.

“Yeah, I’ll cannulate him,” Martha said, already pulling the necessary tubes out of a nearby drawer. “Maybe narrowing of the airways? Is this an allergy?”

“It’s not characteristic of anaphylaxis,” the Doctor pointed out.

“It’s got traits.”

“Yeah … what else could it be?”

“What did they give him?” Martha asked, already having got the cannula in place.

“Tranquiliser.”

Martha frowned, shooting a look at the Doctor. “A neuroleptic? Anti-psychotic?”

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “NMS!”

Martha’s eyes shot open too. “Yes!” she realised.

“So do we give him epinephrine?”

“It would improve his breathing and his blood pressure. Maybe even quickstart his heart.”

“Wait,” Martha said quickly, hand in the air as Jack and Sarah returned with the third heart machine. “Can we be this rough?”

“His left heart’s fast, but steady,” the Doctor insisted, taking the third heart from Jack and already linking it up. “With the third heart he’s got a better chance than if we didn’t give him epinephrine.”

Martha nodded. “Okay let’s do it.”

“Epinephrine?” Jack asked.

“Yes, please,” Martha replied as Jack ran off. The Doctor continued to work as Rose continued to stare at Alex, tears in her eyes.

“You’re fine,” she whispered to her baby son. “You’re fine …”

“Third heart’s ready,” the Doctor announced, and hit the switch. The third heart began to make a strange noise like a gushing waterfall, and suddenly Alex’s left heart evened out to a regular pace.

“Left heart steady, 90 BPM,” she announced.

“It worked,” the Doctor breathed out in a sigh of relief as Jack got back with the epinephrine. Martha took it from him and administered it immediately. All of the frenzied monitors began to slow down, slowly evening out to a nice, steady, rhythmic pace.

“I think we’re in the clear,” Martha said, smiling as she checked his left heart again. “But it’s uncommon for NMS to be this potent.”

“Maybe it’s a jackpot?”

“You mean both?

“Exactly.”

“It would explain the symptoms,” Martha mused.

“Let’s just keep him stabilised and wait to see the effect of the epinephrine and saline,” the Doctor suggested. “Keep a close eye.”

“Okay,” Martha agreed.

“What the hell is anyone even talkin’ about!?” Rose suddenly demanded to know, her eyes reddened as she stared up at her husband.

“Sorry,” he said quickly. “We think Alex has been hit with both anaphylaxis and Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome. But he’s stable.”

Rose nodded before looking back at Alex. His unruly brown hair was everywhere, so she carefully patted it down. “He’s really sick, isn’t he?” she croaked.

“Yes,” the Doctor affirmed, nodding. “But it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“I’ll go and check no one else needs my help,” Martha suddenly announced. “And I’ll be back to look at you a bit later,” she directed at the Doctor, who nodded and gave a half-assed salute.

“He’ll be fine,” Sarah assured them as Martha left. “I’ll get back to Luke. Shout if you need me.”

“Thank you,” the Doctor said sincerely, before looking at Jack. “Thank you too.”

“You’re welcome. I’d better check Yan,” he said. “Just shout at me too.”

“Will do,” the Doctor affirmed, before Jack left too.

“Mummy!” suddenly came a scream from the infirmary doorway, making everyone jump about five feet in the air. They turned to find Leah running towards them, throwing herself at Rose for a hug. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too,” Rose replied, kissing her forehead. 

“Hey, don’t I get a hug?” the Doctor asked seriously.

“I only saw you this morning,” Leah told him.

The Doctor frowned, and then quickly worked it out, nodding. “Of course you did. Gimme a hug anyway,” he invited, holding out his arm.

Leah pulled a face at him. “No.”

“No?”

“You were mad,” Leah said, folding her arms indignantly.

“Was I?”

“You got all mean and yelled at me.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” the Doctor said sincerely, still holding out his arm.

Leah harrumphed. “Well s’not good enough!”

“I know.”

“I expect better of you,” she told him firmly as Rose snorted with laughter.

“You’re right,” the Doctor conceded.

“I hope you’re really guilty.”

“I said sorry!” the Doctor claimed in a high-pitched voice, all innocence.

Leah sighed and unfolded her arms, hugging him. “The things I gotta do for you, geez!”

The Doctor laughed, kissing her forehead. “Thank you, love you.”

“I love you too daddy but you gotta stop being annoying.”

“I’ll try,” he told her with a smile, giving her one last squeeze before letting go.

Leah pulled back, and looked at Alex.

“What’s wrong with Alex?” she asked.

“He’s a bit ill, but he’ll be fine,” he told her.

“Did you find out where he went?”

The Doctor nodded. “We did. But we sorted it out.”

“Okay,” Leah said, nodding. “So nobody’s gonna disappear me?”

“Nope. Though, let’s be honest, whoever wants to disappear you is very welcome. You’re hard work to please.”

Leah’s eyes shot wide open. “Daddy!” she wailed.

“I’m kidding!” the Doctor said quickly, laughing.

Leah just glared at him, not unlike her mother. “You’re not funny.”

The Doctor laughed again. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, hugging her again. They sank into silence, just hugging each other.

“Daddy,” Leah suddenly said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Did you find something to fix you yet? You look really sick.”

He sighed, still holding her close. “Not yet.”

“Don’t give up.”

The Doctor paused for a moment, just thinking about that. “... No,” he finally replied.

“Promise you won’t.”

“I promise.”

“Good,” she said, drawing back. “I’m gonna go play. I’m happy Alex is okay.”

“Us too.”

“When’s lunch?”

“You hungry?”

“Yeah.”

The Doctor shot a look in Jack’s direction. “How about you go and annoy Uncle Jack until he gets you something?”

“Okay!” Leah enthused and ran off towards Ianto’s bed. The Doctor watched as the little girl grabbed the ex-Time Agent’s hand and pulled on him with her entire weight, nearly making him fall over.

The Doctor laughed, looking back at Rose - but she was still staring at Alex, a sombre expression on her face.

“Okay?” he asked quietly, placing his hand on hers, which was still clutching Alex’s.

There was a brief pause before she spoke, her voice low and calm. “Did you try and kill Toby?”

The Doctor considered her for a moment. She wasn’t looking at him. “... I thought about it.”

“... Would you have?”

The Doctor looked at her again. “... I don’t know,” he replied honestly.

There was a longer pause than ever before.

“... I would’ve,” Rose finally whispered.

The Doctor took her into a hug, but said nothing.

“Thete.”

The Doctor turned, seeing Brax. “What?”

“Got a problem.”

The Doctor nodded, kissed Rose and got up. “Coming?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Okay. Back in a bit.”

She nodded before the Doctor moved out with Brax to the corridor, the older Time Lord taking his numb arm.

“The Tardis won’t leave Earth,” he said.

The Doctor frowned. “What?”

“I‘ve managed to take us forward in time, two weeks, but leaving Earth - she’s refusing. Not even into the vortex.”

* * *

The Doctor got into the console room, which had thinned out of occupants since he’d arrived earlier, with Mickey and Martha remaining.

He moved straight to the console, commencing programming one-handed. Almost immediately the TARDIS made a loud grating noise, akin to trying to start a reluctant car.

“Come on girl, what’s wrong?” the Doctor asked, resting his hand on the time rotor.

The TARDIS groaned in reply.

“Just get us into the vortex, come on.”

The TARDIS groaned again.

“Hold on,” the Doctor muttered, tapping a few buttons. The TARDIS made another straining noise, and suddenly the Doctor groaned.

“What?” Brax asked.

“We’re ball and chained,” the Doctor replied.

“What does that mean?” Mickey asked.

“We’re stuck on Earth. We can’t leave the planet, not even into the vortex.”

“But we have to,” Mickey croaked.

“Sorry,” the Doctor replied shortly.

“They’re going to chase us. They want you captured or dead, Doctor,” Martha pointed out. “The whole of Earth. They’ll be able to track the Tardis if she’s running for long enough. Unit have the technology.”

“I know,” he said, leaning heavily on the console as he desperately tried to think.

“Then we hide somewhere they won’t look,” Martha said.

“Sahara desert!” Mickey exclaimed, finger in the air.

The Doctor looked at him. “Oh, come on, that’s the first place they’ll look.”

“In the Amazon!”

“The second. No, we need somewhere … somewhere they wouldn’t think we’d dare to show. Somewhere populated but isolated at the same time.”

There was a long silence as everyone thought about that for a while, possibilities flicking through their heads.

“... What about Canary Wharf?” Mickey suddenly suggested.

The Doctor screwed up his face. “Don’t be an idi … hold on,” he interrupted himself, his eyes widening as he looked up at the man. “Mickey, you’re a genius!” he yelled, and began to program.

“Canary Wharf?” Brax echoed, obviously confused.

“It used to belong to Torchwood,” Mickey said quickly, embracing his brief stardom. “There was a rift on the top floor. But after the battle of Canary Wharf the entire buildin’ got sealed off. It’s a no go area. It’s right in the middle of London.”

“That’s clever,” Brax said, nodding at the man. Mickey beamed.

The TARDIS suddenly landed with a jolt, everyone quickly grabbing their nearest solid object. The Doctor nodded at the three in the console room, before flicking a single, solitary switch. The lights in the console room went down and were replaced with low lighting.

The Doctor leant forward to the microphone to address everyone in the TARDIS.

* * *

Rose had been next to Alex when the TARDIS jolted and the lights abruptly dimmed. She had panicked for a moment, checking Alex, but the infirmary still had power. Then her husband spoke, his voice emitting from tiny speakers embedded in the walls.

_ “Everyone, we’ve gone into hiding. We’ve been ball and chained to the Earth, somehow, and until I fix this we’re hiding in Canary Wharf in London. Be sure that Unit will come after us. I’ve put the Tardis in emergency power mode so she can’t be detected and the infirmary is still fully functional, but I can’t promise they won’t find us. I can’t guarantee your safety. If you wish to leave, you can leave now. Please think about this. We’ll have a meeting in the infirmary in three minutes. Thank you.” _

Rose sighed, wrapping her arms around her son and holding him as everyone started to arrive. Jack came back with Leah who was munching on a sandwich, followed by Gwen and Rhys; then Sarah and Luke moved over; Jackie and Tony arrived with Kiana; Mickey and Martha; until finally the Doctor arrived with Brax, looking very solemn.

“Sorry,” he began, looking around at them all as Leah ran to his side. He stroked her hair thoughtfully for a moment, before moving to the nearest TV and putting it on.

The sight that greeted them was horrendous. There were protests on the streets, people screaming for justice.

_ “Thousands of people are lining the streets of major city centres minutes after Unit’s broadcast, in which an alien called the Doctor has taken responsibility for the abductions. It has since been discovered that the abductees were held in the Tower of London, where this morning Unit broke in and found all of the abductees dead with no sign of the Doctor ...” _

“Rose,” the Doctor said, turning to his wife as he switched off the TV. “I want you to take Leah, Alex and Kiana. Go with Brax. Just hide. Get away from me. It’s me they want.”

Rose barely acknowledged that. “I can’t believe they all want you dead. After all you’ve done.”

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said honestly. “But … I don’t think I can fix this. I’ll mend the Tardis and leave Earth. You’ll be safe here.”

Rose stood up, suddenly very annoyed. “And what, you’re just plannin’ to leave us here?”

“I … I can’t take you away from your home planet,” the Doctor muttered. “It’s not fair.”

“Do I look like I care?” she asked seriously, stepping up to him. “God, for a clever guy you aren’t half stupid.”

“You’ll never be able to come back. As long as you’re with me … we can never come back to Earth.”

“I don’t care,” she replied. 

“Please, think about this,” the Doctor urged her. “This is your home planet. I … I can never go back to mine and it hurts, Rose. I’m not going to force you to go through that.”

“That’s different,” she replied. “You had family there. The people that mattered. The people that matter to me? They’re standin’ in this room, and no one more than you and the kids. I crossed universes to find you. I left my mum and brother, Doctor,” she said. “I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t hurt cos you know it did but it was okay because I had you. I don’t care about Earth half as much as I care about you, yeah?”

He gazed at her for a long moment. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” she agreed, and looked down at Leah. “What about you?”

“I wanna stay with Daddy,” Leah said quietly, holding onto his leg.

“Me too,” Rose agreed, and hugged him as well. “No matter what you end up lookin’ like.”

The Doctor sighed. “Thank you,” he said, and then looked to the others. “We’re leaving the planet. Get out and go home before it’s too late.”

Jack nodded, stepping forward and unfolding his arms. “Okay. If Earth don’t want you, they can’t have me either.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, frowning.

“There’s not much tying me here, Torchwood’s gone. I can always visit without you - hitch a ride. Let me come with you. I’ll live on the Tardis, if you’ll have me.”

Rose nodded. “Of course we would. Anyone can live on the Tardis,” she said, looking at the Doctor, who nodded. “We’d be really happy if you did.”

Jack turned to Ianto, who was finally standing up out of bed. “Yan, I love you. I don’t wanna leave you, but this is about honour. If you wanna come with me, that’s fine. If you don’t, that’s fine. I’ll visit you as much as I can.”

“Jack …” Ianto began.

“It’s okay if you don’t wanna leave Earth. I don’t expect you to.”

“Jack …” Ianto repeated, a little louder.

“It’d just be really nice if you came with-”

“Shut up,” Ianto interrupted. “Of course I’m coming with you.”

“Oh.”

“Me and Tony’ll come of course,” Jackie said next. “You’re my family!”

Rose nodded, launching forward to hug her mum.

“It’s disgusting how Earth have treated you,” Martha agreed, looking at Mickey who was nodding. “It’s not like I’ve got a job with Unit anymore. I’ve got family but I can visit. Mickey?” she directed at her husband.

He continued to nod. “My family’s right here,” he said.

“I’m not sure I could,” Sarah mused.

“No one’s forcing you,” the Doctor said quickly.

She acknowledged what he said with a nod. “Humans may be foolish, but that doesn’t mean we can completely desert them.”

The Doctor nodded. “I agree.”

“Luke?” Sarah asked.

Luke nodded. “Someone has to look after the planet.”

“And who knows, if we worked hard enough maybe you can come back one day.”

The Doctor nodded. “I understand,” he said with a smile, and everyone turned to Gwen and Rhys.

“I don’t know,” Gwen muttered.

“You don’t have to,” Jack reinforced.

“I know. But… I don’t think Rhys could handle a house, never mind a spaceship.”

“Oi!” Rhys said indignantly, making Gwen laugh.

“No, but seriously,” Gwen said. “We’ve got family here.”

“Then stay,” Jack insisted. 

Gwen sighed, hand on her head. “How can I go back to a normal life after this?”

“We could …” Ianto began, but then quickly stopped himself. “No, sorry. Stupid.”

“What?” Jack asked.

“... Retcon.”

Jack frowned. “That’s a hell of a lot of retcon.”

“Yes, but it would erase Torchwood,” Ianto pointed out. “We could put a different job on your CV. Sort out references. It would feel like you’d just left your desk job.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” Gwen moaned.

“I’ll follow you, Gwen,” Rhys suddenly inputted.

She sighed once more, and turned to Rose. “Where would we go?”

“Anywhere,” Rose replied. “There are a million planets out there, Gwen, just waiting.”

“It’d be strange.”

“Not strange,” Jack pointed out. “Just new.”

Gwen looked at Rhys again, reaching out to hold his hand for reassurance. “I can’t decide.”

Rhys just shrugged. “You always liked a challenge.”

Gwen nodded, and looked back at the Doctor. “Okay, we’ll go. Long as we can bring Anwen too.”

The Doctor nodded. “Of course you can.”

“Don’t have to pay rent, do we?” Rhys joked, smiling.

The Doctor grinned at that. “No. Just don’t expect any peaceful days. Except Sundays.”

“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Gwen said, smiling.

The Doctor nodded, and turned to Sarah and Luke. “Thank you. As soon as Martha gives Luke the okay I’ll drop you home.”


	22. 3rd July 2013, 13:24:41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor’s condition abruptly worsens as the team continue to try and fix the TARDIS.

One week passed.

Sarah and Luke had left, with special instructions to call Rose if anything happened. Alex had physically recovered and Ianto was also up and about. Martha had also thoroughly examined the Doctor from head to toe, and the prognosis had been as dismal as everyone had expected. 

The nerves in his left arm were absolutely shredded, while the ones in his right seemed only to be working through sheer willpower. They had run out of Maghmar, so there was no way of improving it. He didn’t have very long to go, but nobody had needed to examine him to see that. 

He was no longer able to eat without throwing up, he was constantly struggling to breathe, and his skin was constantly tinged with purple. His fat reserves had gone, and his muscles were dying away to nothing. He’d never been particularly filled out, but now everyone could see every bone in his body sticking out through his skin. His eyes had lost their light, and he was only just about managing to get himself dressed in the morning.

Martha had tried to get him to rest but he refused, too concerned with trying to fix the TARDIS, which was a task currently getting nowhere.

“It’s no good,” Brax muttered, tapping away at the TARDIS console for the 45th time. “Whatever has gotten into her has gone extremely deep.”

“What else can we do?” Jack wondered.

Brax sighed and looked at his brother currently curled up under the floor plate with his entire top half inside the TARDIS. “Thete? Have you found anything?”

The Doctor ducked out of the gap, still holding a spanner with his hair in chaos and wires twisted around his neck. “What about a reset?” he suggested.

Jack looked at Brax, who was staring at his brother with a raised eyebrow. “You clearly don’t need me to point out what a silly idea that is,” the older Time Lord said seriously, his arms folded.

Jack frowned. “What’s silly about it?” he asked, genuinely perplexed. 

“We have to evacuate the Tardis during the process,” Brax replied. “Which means Unit will detect us.”

“Resetting takes ten minutes,” the Doctor pointed out, taking the offer of a hand up from Jack.

Jack looked back at Brax. “That’s not long.”

“We will still be vulnerable,” Brax retorted, his tone as if that had ended the conversation.

“Not for long, though,” Jack said, and looked at the Doctor. “What does the reset do?”

“Sort of like a registry cleaner and anti-virus. She’ll clear up all the bad files and clean the cache. That sort of thing,” the Doctor replied.

“What percentage chance it’ll fix the Tardis?”

“In the high 70’s.”

“Then let’s do it,” Jack decided.

“This won’t end well,” Brax warned lowly.

Jack rolled his eyes slightly. “You’re such a downer.”

“I’m realistic.”

“So am I. We’ve gotta try this.”

“No.”

“What else is there?” Jack asked seriously. “We need to leave Earth, Brax, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Don’t belittle me,” Brax replied gratingly, glaring at Jack.

“Well, have a little faith.”

Brax snorted with laughter, but in no way was it humourful. 

“I’m serious,” Jack said, getting agitated now. “But if you’ve got another plan be my gu...”

Jack was interrupted by a loud ‘thunk’ just behind him, and he turned to see the Doctor on the floor, his eyes closed. Immediately the two forgot about the impromptu argument.

“Get Martha!” Brax ordered, but Jack was already out the door. Brax quickly dropped to his brother, checking for a pulse. It was going, but it was weak. He checked his hearts next, but only one seemed to be working. “Thete, can you hear me?” he asked, turning the younger Time Lord over to lay supine. “Come on, Theta. Not now.”

Seconds later Martha came through the door, followed by Rose and Jack. She waddled as quickly as she could to him, pulling out a stethoscope en-route.

“What happened?” Rose asked breathlessly, kneeling down beside her husband’s head, holding it carefully.

“He collapsed,” Brax replied quickly as Martha checked his hearts in turn.

“Is this the alere flamman?” Rose asked. “Did he get emotional?”

“No,” Jack replied immediately. “He was fine.”

“He’s only got one heart pumping,” Marha muttered, and then gestured for Jack to get down in her place. “Jack, start CPR on his right heart.”

Jack nodded and set to work immediately as Martha struggled upright again. “We need to get him to the infirmary. I  _ told  _ him this would happen if he didn’t calm down…”

“Forget it, let’s just deal with it,” Jack replied quickly, still giving chest compressions. He paused briefly to check the Doctor’s heart, but quickly continued afterwards.

“Is he not reacting?” Rose asked anxiously, running her thumb over her husband’s dry lips.

“No,” Jack grunted, still pumping. He checked again, but still nothing seemed to be happening.

“Hit his chest,” Martha ordered next. “Once on the front, once on the back.”

Jack did as he was told, and checked again for a heartbeat. He looked up at Martha and shook his head. “I’ll keep giving CPR,” he said, but Martha held up a hand.

“Stop. Just get him to the infirmary.”

“But his heart …”

“It’s dead, Jack,” Martha replied, a little harshly. She quickly checked herself, before wincing and putting on an apologetic expression. "Sorry.”

"Don't worry," Jack said quickly, taking a grip on the Doctor. "Brax, gimme a hand."

Brax nodded, and together he and Jack carried the Doctor out the door. Rose followed with Martha, feeling numb.

"This is it, isn't it," she realised quietly.

Martha nodded. "Yes. I'm sorry."

Rose could find no other words to say as she and Martha left for the infirmary.

* * *

The Doctor was quickly stabilised and woke up ten minutes later, Brax, Rose, Jack and Martha all gathered around him with the latter attaching him to an IV.

"Hello," Rose said softly, kissing him. He looked at her, blinking a few times.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You collapsed, Theta," Brax responded.

The Doctor frowned, reaching a weak hand up to the right side of his chest. “I can’t feel anything…”

"Your right heart is dead," Martha said quietly. “There’s nothing we can do. It’s not going to come back.”

"Oh," he muttered.

"You need to regenerate, Theta. You're going to die very soon," Brax said.

The Doctor seemed to ignore him, looking back at Rose, and then to Jack. "We need to reset the Tardis."

"Did you hear what I said?" Brax asked, annoyed.

"We need to mend her, then deal with me," the Doctor replied breathlessly.

"You need to regenerate right now."

"No."

"You tried to find the memory and failed, Theta. You can't template regenerate. I'm sorry but it's not possible."

"No."

"Theta!" Brax shouted, annoyed.

"He's right, Doctor," Rose said quietly.

"No,” the Doctor repeated firmly, looking at her. "Rose, I need to talk to you."

"Theta ..." Brax began, but Rose held up a hand to stop him.

"Just give us a minute," she said.

Brax huffed a sigh before Jack forced him up, following Martha out of the door. The door closed and Rose pulled her chair closer to him, taking his hand.

He offered her a small grin. "Get me up."

She frowned a little. “I don’t think I should.”

“Go on,” he encouraged, pulling that familiar, beautiful grin. “Live a little.”

Rose glanced at the door, but couldn't see the others. “All right,” she said. She grabbed a hoverchair and pushed it to the bed, helping him in it and putting his IVs in place. He’d lost so much weight and muscle that it was like picking up a pile of kindling wood.

"Where d'you wanna go?" she asked.

"Botanical gardens," he replied.

Rose nodded, took the handles and pushed him towards the door. They passed through, and Jack, Martha and Brax immediately apprehended them.

"Where are you going?" Brax asked.

"Botanical gardens," the Doctor replied.

"Why?"

"Why do you need to know everything?" the Doctor wondered seriously. 

“Are you going to regenerate?” Martha asked.

“Thete, you need to regenerate,” Brax added anxiously.

“He’s right,” Jack said, nodding.

“Will everyone just for two seconds…” the Doctor began, but was drowned out by the crowd of people trying to talk him into sense. He sighed, looked at Rose under their pleas and gave a desperate look. She rolled her eyes and stood up straight.

“Shut up!” she shouted. Instantly all three muted, slightly taken aback by her sudden outburst. “Me and my husband are goin’ to the botanical gardens, and no, it’s none of your business actually and shouldn’t you two be doin’ somethin’ anyway?” she added, glaring at Jack and Brax.

“But-”

Rose cut off Brax once more. “Reset the Tardis.”

“You-”

“Reset the  _ bloody  _ Tardis!” she bellowed in his face. He whimpered a little, before quickly turning and running off to the console room. She switched her gaze to Jack. “Go on! Go and help him!”

Jack quickly departed after the Time Lord.

Rose turned to Martha next. “Martha, go and rest. He’s fine. I’ll call you if anythin’ happens, I promise, yeah?”

Martha looked at the Doctor, who nodded and gave a weak thumb-up. She nodded in return and left them alone in the corridor.

The Doctor breathed out through gritted teeth, looking up at his wife still standing there with her arms crossed. “Okay, not exactly how I was envisioning, but it worked.”

Her annoyed expression morphed back into a grin, leaning down to kiss his cheek. “You’re welcome.”

“Remind me to place you in a more forward role next time the Daleks arrive.”

She laughed and retook the handles, pushing him through the corridor.

* * *

Even though Rose had been living in the TARDIS for over five years now and had visited the botanical gardens many times, they still had the effect of taking her breath away. A little grass path, perfectly trimmed and kept neatly carved the way through wild flower beds filled with various alien plants she couldn't even begin to describe with English adjectives. In the distance was a small rainbow-coloured forest with a giant pink waterfall cascading down just beyond it. Above them was a strange projected alien sky, currently orange and white with stars flickering.

This was where he had first asked to bond with her. She thought he'd been joking to start with and made a joking answer in return. He'd turned as pink as the waterfall, before she realised he'd been utterly serious. There had been a slightly awkward pause, but then she'd kissed him. They bonded, and he had whispered his real name in her ear. Even though it was long and complicated, she had never spoken it out loud and he had only whispered it once, she still remembered it exactly.

Then they'd just laid there together for hours, sharing stories about their lives. She had told him about Jimmy Stone and in return he'd told her about the Time War and the Year That Never Was. They’d both cried. They'd nicknamed it the blubbing gardens very rapidly after that.

It was also the place they'd conceived Leah. Right under a cherry tree by a purple pond. Nobody else knew that. It had only been the second time they'd made love since they'd bonded and he had still been very awkward and apprehensive. He preferred not to remember it. He turned pink whenever she mentioned it.

They hadn't really had time to visit here much with the kids. She'd missed it, and their little talks. Last time they'd been in here was a year ago when he'd told her about his childhood and family.

She wheeled him down the path and to the circle of apple grass and stopped, but to her surprise he'd waved a hand.

"Go into the forest," he said.

"Okay," she replied and pushed him some more, beyond the apple grass circle, past the pond and cherry tree and through an artful rock formation into a forest. They eventually came to a clearing where there was a strange stone circle with a slab in the centre that looked like an altar, sprinkled with yellow flowers. Beams of lights shot through the dense trees, lighting up the slab with a few fireflies dashing around. She could hear the crashing of the distant waterfall and the bubbling of a nearby river, and for some reason she could smell honey.

"Here," he said and she stopped next to the slab. Working together they got him onto it, the IVs managing to stay attached to him. He picked one of the flowers creeping up the slab and held it up to her, grinning.

"The Via Purifico," he told her informatively as she sat down next to him. "Means road to purification."

"Nice," she said. He gave her his one and picked another to replace it, gazed at it for a moment, and popped it in his mouth.

"Try it," he encouraged through his mouthful. "Tastes like... Potpourri."

She ate it, but pulled a face as she chewed.

“Not nice?” he supposed.

“Ever eat something that smells like it’ll taste amazing but actually doesn’t?”

He grinned a little. “Cherry lipbalm,” he said. 

She looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“You’ve had a lick, come on,” he encouraged.

She laughed. “I used to have these smelly gel pens at school. Well, I didn’t but everyone else did. I wanted them. They smelt amazin’. But they didn’t taste great. Well… they wouldn’t.”

He laughed. "There are stories," he began after he'd swallowed in a mysterious voice, "that the Via Purifico holds a magic power, bringing luck to anyone who is desperate for help but has nowhere else to turn."

"That's sweet I guess," she supposed. "When someone is so desperate that they'll even put their faith in a flower."

"Exactly."

"Kinda like us you mean?" she wondered vaguely, smiling sheepishly.

"Yeah," he affirmed.

She looked at him, sitting there attached to bags she didn't even know the contents of. She didn't even want to know. As long as they kept him smiling at her with that perfect smile. Because it wouldn't be there for long. 

“We need to talk about the baby,” he suddenly said.

Rose quickly shook her head. "Forget them for a bit."

"No,” he insisted. “Look ... I just wanted to say I'm okay with it."

"What?" she asked, surprised.

"We tried to abort before and I couldn't. I don't think I can.”

“If you really want to … Look, I can do it and you don’t have to be there, do you?”

He gazed at her. “But I’d know.”

“But another birth ... God, we swore never to do it again. It hurts you so much,” she said quietly.

"I know."

She sighed. “... So we’re keepin’ the baby.”

“Looks like it,” the Doctor muttered.

Rose caught his tone. “Are you sure?”

The Doctor scoffed. “Of course not.”

“I'm serious, I'll take the pill.”

He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “You're keen.”

She sighed, taking a moment for a deep breath before taking his hands into her own, gentle and delicate. “I saw what you went through, Doctor. You nearly died with pain. You told my mum you didn’t think you’d make it through alive. We spent days recoverin’. I just can't watch you go through that again. You know I'm not gonna enjoy it but I love you too much to do it again. Remember what you said to me after?”

“... That I didn't want to have another child,” the Doctor muttered. “That I was scared it might get so hard I might not think it’s worth it anymore. That when I reached the moment where I hated you and baby … It would be permanent.”

“Exactly,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “Alex was worse for you than Leah, yeah? What if it just gets worse?”

There was a long pause. The Doctor’s eyes dropped to the ground, his eyes flickering back and forth as if searching the ground for an answer. He finally looked up, and gave one short, sharp nod.

“We want to abort?” Rose clarified.

“... Yes.”

She sighed again, leaning forward to kiss him. “Just one problem left.”

“... Yes,” he repeated, pulling a face.

"Let's just regenerate as soon as we can."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to regenerate until I have to. I want to stay as me ... For a little longer."

Rose nodded. "I get it."

"Thank you," he breathed.

The conversation filtered away again, but it was in no way an awkward silence. They sat there contentedly, Rose keeping her hands firmly on his as they gazed at their beautiful surroundings.

Rose finally looked at him. “Ready to go reset the Tardis?” she asked.

“Can we hide for a bit?” the Doctor wondered.

She grinned at his expression. “Okay,” she said, and made herself comfortable. “We haven’t even started on the other thing yet.”

“Other thing?”

“You’re hurt up there, too,” she said, pointing at his head. 

“Oh,” he muttered redundantly.

“Let me in,” she coaxed softly. “Let me help.”

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, and then began to tell her everything.

* * *

Everyone was in the kitchen when they finally went back. Martha was on the Doctor immediately, checking him over as Brax also got to his feet, abandoning what he was eating.

“Have you talked sense into him?” he asked Rose.

“We’re waitin’ till the last moment,” Rose told him.

“It will only make it harder, Rose,” Brax pointed out seriously.

“We know,” she answered honestly.

“He needs to regenerate now, you must understand,” Brax implored.

Rose sighed, fed up with her brother-in-law. “Well the last time I checked he wasn't your husband and if he wants to be himself a little while longer then that's our decision not yours,” she replied tersely.

Brax’s gaze disconnected. “... Sorry,” he eventually said.

Rose turned back to the Doctor, where Martha was busy checking his responses.

“Can you lift your arms for me?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Are they numb?”

“No, just tired.”

Martha nodded and began to disconnect him from the IV lines going into his arms. “You don’t need these anymore then.”

Rose knew Brax was watching her. She turned, seeing an expression on his face portraying a look of, ‘I told you so’. She decided to ignore it, looking at Jack and the others instead who all suddenly looked so sad.

Jack stepped forward to the Doctor. "What d'you wanna do?"

"What?"

"Anything you wanna do, we'll make it happen. It's the least you deserve," Jack said sincerely.

The Doctor looked at the crowd of people surrounding him. His new family. His answer was so simple.

"I want ... To get dressed."

Gwen couldn't help but laugh. "Anything you want to do and you wanna get dressed?"

"My dreams too big for you?" he teased. Gwen laughed again.

"I got it," Rose said, taking the handles of the hoverchair.

“We’ll sort the Tardis,” Jack said, moving forward to hug him. “Don’t worry.”

“I’m not,” the Doctor assured him, Jack letting go before Rose pushed him out of the door, Jackie in tow. Everyone else drifted out after that, leaving Brax and Jack alone together.

“Can I ask you a question?” Braxiatel suddenly asked, looking at Jack.

“Yeah?”

“Why doesn’t Thete react to you touching him when he’s in a bad state?”

“What d’you mean?”

“He must have told you that you’re a fixed point,” Brax said. “That you feel wrong. If he’s injured he should be repelled by you, purely on instinct. Why does he not do that?”

Jack sighed. There was no point lying to Brax. He quickly looked around, checking for any other ears before he began. “Do you remember us talking about the Year That Never Was?”

“Yes,” Brax replied immediately, his eyebrows lowering at the mere thought of what his brother had described to him.

Jack swallowed. “The Master had this day, the 13th October, where he was fed up of mishaps. People losing things, dropping things, trying to escape. So he got everyone together in the main room to watch, took the Doctor and … took out his frustrations on him,” Jack murmured. He’d never spoken about this day out loud, before. It had always been a secret, shared only by the memory of the people who had been there, plus Rose, as the Doctor had told her. Even the memory made him shiver. “Afterwards he had the Doctor locked up with me, just so he was close to my ‘wrongness’. To drive him mad. Because the Doctor … he was temporarily blinded cos of what the Master did to him. He had a brain injury too. He was reacting entirely on biology. So I knew that the Doctor wouldn’t be okay unless I could touch him. 

“So I took him in a hug and didn’t let go. He screamed and screamed but I kept telling him that I wasn’t hurting him; that I loved him. I held him for ten minutes until he stopped begging me to let go, and said my name. 

“So I kept doing it, again and again. He could only say my name, and I kept repeating it back to him. That I was Jack, I loved him and I wouldn’t hurt him. I kept doing it through the week we were locked up together until he stopped repelling me and let me even feed him. I don’t know if he was training himself to associate my wrongness with comfort, or if what I was doing was just working on a primitive level. But eventually he stopped pushing me away altogether.  _ He  _ sought  _ me  _ out. When his brain injury healed he stayed the same. He took comfort in my touch. He asked me to hold him for as long as we could get away with it because he knew he wouldn’t feel pain when he felt my … wrongness. The Master never found out. Hate to think what he’d have done if he had.”

“And it never went away,” Brax summarised.

Jack shook his head. “That year was hell, but it made us.”

“Brothers in arms.”

“No… it’s more than that. I’ve had plenty of comrades in wars that I felt close to cos of what we went through, but me and the Doctor? It’s another level. I guess I learnt that… well, when you walk through hell together hand-in-hand, you never let go. He’s my best friend. I love him. I loved him before, don’t get me wrong, but now it’s deeper than that.”

Brax nodded, offered a smile and shrug. “I still think you’re wrong.”

Jack grinned. “Apparently I smell like a Trop’ta.”

Brax sniffed purposefully. “Yes, you do.”

Jack laughed, and gestured. “C’mon, we’ll finish the program to reset the Tardis.”


	23. 3rd July 2013, 13:36:27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor enters his final hours.

"Mum, we're okay," Rose told her as they reached the door of her and the Doctor’s bedroom.

"I wanna help," Jackie answered simply.

Rose looked at the Doctor, who pulled a face. She giggled at him, and finally nodded to her mother. "Okay. Help me get him on the bed."

She did, the two of them working together to shift him to the bed. His arms and legs were flopping around uselessly, the power to his muscles clearly having gotten as bad as it was possible to get.

"Okay, you two play nice, I'll get some clothes," Rose said and went into the wardrobe.

"Oh sweetheart," Jackie sighed reaching up to brush back his unruly hair. "This ain't fair."

"I'm sorry."

"What on Earth ‘ave you got to be sorry for?" Jackie wondered.

"Doing this to Rose."

"You're not doin’ anythin’ to Rose ‘cept the best you can."

"This isn't fair on her."

"Oh, this ain't fair on anyone," Jackie countered. "Least of all you."

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

"You're welcome," she said just as Rose came back in holding a pile of clothes. She passed her mum the trousers and put the rest on the bed before jumping onto it beside him.

“Tell me if I’m hurtin’ you,” she said, and pulled the Doctor up to sit against her. She wedged him between her knees, his torso resting against her chest.

“Okay?” she asked over his shoulder.

“Yes,” he replied.

“If it hurts just say stop,” she said and kissed his temple before reaching for his arm, pulling his shirt carefully up over his head as Jackie pulled off his trousers.

"This is so humiliating," he moaned. Rose giggled but Jackie for once didn't berate or mock him, silently doing her job.

Rose pulled on the new t-shirt, quickly followed by a deep-red collared shirt. She then helped him upright, Jackie holding him to lean on her as Rose tucked in his shirt and fastened his trousers. They then helped him back down onto the bed again before Rose retrieved his jacket and tie.

Jackie put on his blue jacket as Rose looped his tie around and did it up, before reaching down to do up his jacket buttons one by one. She then paused, gazing into his eyes. She then leant forward so her lips were barely a centimetre from his ear.

“If it helps I’m finding this kinda hot,” she whispered.

The Doctor snorted with laughter, glancing at Jackie who just rolled her eyes, clearly having heard that. Rose just grinned, her tongue between her teeth, before finishing up his tie and straightening his collar. Lastly the shoes and socks went on, which took a bit more time as the converse were so tight.

“Right,” she said, drawing back to look at him as though looking at a painting she was finishing and trying to decide which shade to add. "I feel like you're missin' something."

He looked down at himself, considering. "Dignity?" he wondered.

She laughed again. "You've got plenty of dignity," she said honestly.

"Oh, come on, I just had to be dressed," the Doctor pointed out. "It’s a bit of a pain for you."

"Don't you ever think you're a pain, sweetheart. You're very sick and we're ‘appy to ‘elp," Jackie said sincerely.

“Coat!” Rose suddenly shouted, startling him.

“What?” he asked, but she was already in the wardrobe, pulling out his trenchcoat. She brushed it down a little, before removing it from the hanger and striding over to him.

Jackie obediently got him into position as Rose methodically slipped each arm in its respective sleeve. She then straightened it out, brushed down the arms and turned down the collar to leave him sitting there supported by Jackie, fully dressed.

“Perfect,” Rose finished, and nodded to her mum again. Together they lifted him up, but nearly lost their grip when the Doctor’s head rolled back abruptly, his eyes sinking into the back of his head. The minimal support he was giving with his legs suddenly disappeared and he and Rose crashed to the floor.

“Doctor!” Rose yelled.

“What?” the Doctor moaned, blinking rapidly.

“Are you okay?” she asked, already on her haunches beside him.

He looked at her, still blinking rapidly. “Stop being out of focus, it’s really rude.”

“Should I get Martha?” Jackie asked.

“No,” the Doctor interrupted before Rose could answer. “Just a headrush. I’m fine.”

“Don’t look it to me,” Jackie commented.

“I’m okay,” he insisted.

“I’m gettin’ Martha,” she said, clearly ignoring him as she jumped up and rushed out of the door.

He sighed, still lying on the floor. “This is pathetic.”

“It’s not. Besides, you’ll get better," Rose added, a little quieter.

The Doctor contained his sigh as his eyes disconnected from her. "Yeah."

"What?"

"You really don't want my face to change do you," he stated more than asked.

"Of course I don't," she replied honestly. "But it's not like we get a choice."

"... Yeah."

"I'll just have to learn to love a new face won't I?" Rose said.

"Yeah."

"Another word?" Rose prompted.

"Yeah. Sorry... Yes."

Rose rolled her eyes. "We've been through hell. We'll get through it."

"But you don't like it."

"No, but it's better than you being dead," she said firmly.

"What did you dream about?" he suddenly asked, his eyes snapping to her.

Rose double-taked. "What?"

"You had a nightmare. Just after the abduction. It was about my regeneration wasn't it?"

Rose blinked, stunned. "Well, yeah. But ..."

"I was horrible, wasn't I?"

She sighed. She couldn't lie. "Yeah."

"What did I say?"

"You ... Left us. You didn't care about me or the kids. You grabbed my neck. You ... You were like the Master.”

“It’s never happening,” the Doctor said swiftly. “I might look different and act different but it’s still me.”

“I know,” she muttered. “We  _ have  _ done this before, y’know.”

“I know. Do you want my little ‘run’ speech again? I was quite proud of that.”

She couldn’t resist a smile. “About the only good thing you said in those ten minutes.”

“What d’you mean?”

“Oh, come on, you didn’t exactly give me a warnin’, did ya?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What did you say?” she asked seriously. “Somethin’ about dogs with no noses and whoosh, up you went.”

“I said I’d change,” the Doctor said meekly.

“And that was s’posed to cover everythin’, yeah?” she asked, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

“In my defence I  _ was  _ dying,” the Doctor pointed out. “I wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind to start defining extremely complex physiological processes in simple terms for you.”

“Not even five seconds to say, ‘I’m gonna change my body but don’t worry it’s totally normal for my species’ ...?”

“Would that have really helped?”

She pulled a face. “Probably not,” she admitted.

“Exactly!” the Doctor replied, victorious. She just rolled her eyes and placed a kiss on his forehead as Martha came in.

“What happened?” she asked quickly, looking at the Doctor on the floor.

“I had a headrush and Jackie dialled 999,” the Doctor replied, deadpan.

“Fit,” Jackie corrected.

“Headrush,” the Doctor recorrected.

“Fit.”

“Headrush.”

“Fit.”

“Headr-”

“Everyone be quiet,” Martha demanded, looking down at the Doctor. He could barely see her face over her now massive pregnant belly. “Doctor, has the weakness become worse?”

“No. I just had a headrush, I got up too quickly.”

“Yes, and he had a fit,” Jackie said over him.

Martha scowled at them both. “Rose,” she turned to the woman. “What happened?”

“We were gettin’ him up,” she said, with both her mother and husband staring daggers at her, “his eyes rolled back, his legs went dead and he fell backwards. He was fine after that.”

Martha didn't say what she was thinking just yet. "Get him up."

Rose and Jackie did, sitting him in the hoverchair again. Martha checked his eyes.

"They're more dilated than before," she said. "The poison is really taking hold now.”

“How long have we got?” Rose asked.

Martha hesitated.

“Just tell me,’ Rose insisted.

Martha sighed. “Honestly, I don’t think you’re going to last the day, Doctor.”

"What's going on?" Brax asked from the doorway.

"He had a fit," Jackie said loudly, pointing at the Doctor.

"Headrush," Martha corrected before the Doctor could open his mouth. "Still got feeling in your limbs?"

"I can't feel my fingers anymore," he admitted, then changing the subject, looked at his brother. "Is the Tardis ready to reset?"

Brax confirmed with a nod. "You should..."

"If the next word out of your mouth is regenerate I'm kicking you out of my Tardis," the Doctor interrupted.

"Actually I was going to say get out," Brax said, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh. Yes. Come on," the Doctor said. "I'm fine, let's sort out the Tardis."

* * *

They all gathered in the Lever Room, standing and sitting around so far for three minutes as the TARDIS churned, clicked and hummed her way through the reset. The Doctor was in the hoverchair, Rose stood by him, Leah holding onto his leg and Alex sitting on the floor cuddling his aegyptosaurus with Kiana and Anwen asleep in the arms of Mickey and Rhys.

“It will be done soon,” Brax mused. “And then Thete can regenerate.”

The Doctor sighed heavily. “How many times…”

“You can't just keep putting it off,” Brax said, his voice raising slightly.

“Yes, I can,” the Doctor replied shortly. Everyone was watching them now.

“You're waiting until the last minute?” Brax scoffed. “Well, in case you didn't this  _ is  _ the last minute.”

“Butt out, Brax,” Jack said smoothly, his arms folded.

Brax looked at him, then at the rest of them, all nodding their heads in agreement. “Are you all this  _ stupid?”  _ he cried.

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “Don't insult my friends.”

“What friends they are!” Brax said loudly and sarcastically. “Happy to sit here and watch you suffer!”

“You need to respect his decision,” Jack said coolly.

“He’s the one regenerating, not you,” Gwen agreed.

“Idiot humans, all of you!” Brax shouted, his finger pointing at the Doctor. “And you! I know you’re practically human these days but I thought you were at least  _ smart!  _ You’re just as dumb as they are!”

“Please stop arguing,” Leah said quietly, tears in her eyes. Jack dropped to her, hugging her comfortingly.

“I'm not a kid Brax!” the Doctor shouted back.

“You could have fooled me!”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that Brax always knows best!”

“Yes, he does!”

“Incase you hadn't noticed I'm dying, Brax!”

“Oh, you only just worked that out!?”

“I'm dying and I'm going to lose myself completely!” the Doctor shouted, and for once Brax didn’t retort, allowing the Doctor to continue as his voice dropped. “This body is lived in. It's been through so much and I quite like it and now I'm being forced to lose it, I'm not particularly happy about it. When I die I have utterly no regeneration control and you know what? That scares me, Brax. You're fine, you've got the skill, but me? Who the hell do I end up as? Tell me, because I don't know. Will I be tall or short? Blond or brunette? Good or bad? Man or woman? When I die I'm gone. A new person is born out of the ashes and saunters away. But I'm dead. And I'm scared. So sorry if my ideal regeneration involves a bit of waiting but I'm in no hurry to die.”

There was a long, cold pause.

Brax finally opened his mouth, looking incredibly guilty. “I’m s-”

Suddenly the door crashed open, revealing a man in black attire standing there holding a gun. His eyes snapped straight to Alex still sitting on the floor. 

Everyone recognised him immediately. Younger, less work done, but most definitely ...

“Jack!?” Rose cried in alarm. Past Jack looked up at her.

"Sorry honey, maybe later, I got business," he replied, before aiming the gun straight at Alex.

The Doctor suddenly yelled, somehow finding the strength to launch himself out of the hoverchair and dive straight in-between Alex and the gun. Seconds later, past Jack pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit the Doctor directly in the stomach. He was propelled back, flying through the air as if in slow motion and finally hitting a wall. He sank to the floor, and passed out.

“Fuck!” Jack swore loudly, and past Jack looked at him. His eyes widened in alarm, and he quickly reached for his vortex manipulator. 

“No!” Tony suddenly shouted, tearing away from his mother and running straight at past Jack. Past Jack sped up his programming as Jack ran to him too ...

“Tony!” Jackie shouted in alarm as Tony reached the past Jack, getting a hand on him before the Time Agent suddenly disappeared, taking Tony with him.

“Tony!” Jack yelled, throwing his arm out but clutching at nothing but thin air. 

“No, Tony, where’d he go!?” Jackie shrieked, hysterical.  _ “Tony!!!” _

Jack swore again, already programming his manipulator. “I can detect a time trace if I just …”

“Stop, shut up, no!” Rose garbled out, and Jack’s head snapped up to find her next to the unconscious Doctor, kneeling in a growing puddle of blood. “Stop it!”

Jack quickly realised she wasn’t yelling at him. She was yelling at the Doctor.

“No, wake up,  _ wake up!”  _ she demanded as Martha arrived beside him, pushing her hands straight on the gunshot wound. Blood immediately spilled out from between her fingers.

“Jack!” Ianto suddenly shouted from the window.

Jack completely ignored him, still tapping at his manipulator.

“Jack! It’s Unit!”

That caught Jack’s attention. He ran over to the window Ianto was looking out of, and saw below about ten UNIT vans and soldiers already spilling out of the back, straight into the tower.

“... Everyone get into the Tardis!” Jack shouted. “Mickey, Brax, take the Doctor, Gwen get the kids, everyone just get in!”

“But Tony!” Jackie shouted, tears pouring down her face.

“Get in, Jackie!” Jack demanded furiously, finally getting a result on his manipulator. He made a mental note, then grabbed the hysterical woman and dragged her to the TARDIS. In the distance they could already hear the soldiers’ collective footsteps running up the stairs.

“Jack!” Brax shouted, holding his brother under the armpits. “We can’t go into the Tardis, she …”

“Do I look like I give a crap!?” Jack yelled back, pushing Ianto and Rhys inside the blue doors. “Get the hell in!!!”

They all tumbled inside, but the TARDIS lights were strobing badly. As soon as Jack closed the door the TARDIS lurched as if retching, sending everyone flying.

“Hold on, she’ll keep us safe!” Jack shouted over the horrendous noise of the TARDIS screeching. But even he was beginning to doubt that as she lurched again and he heard Gwen and Ianto yell in pain.

“Are you-” Jack began, but didn’t get to finish his sentence as another lurch sent him flying into the console, and all went black.

* * *

The Doctor opened his eyes to utter darkness.

There was a horrific pain in his stomach, seemingly radiating out across his body in the form of a terrible aching. He felt strangely warm, but in his addled brain he knew that was a bad sign. He was about to regenerate.

He couldn’t move, his entire body frozen. He knew something bad had happened, but his brain couldn’t work out what. Before he could get any further in his thoughts he was interrupted by a noise. Something clicking and turning, followed by another loud click and finally a familiar, creaking noise. The TARDIS door. Somebody had opened the TARDIS door.

The Doctor was suddenly terrified like he’d barely felt before in his life. He was utterly paralysed, helpless, and somebody was entering the TARDIS …

A black figure loomed into his vision. He couldn’t make out any detail.

“Go to sleep,” the voice said softly. A hand pressed to the Doctor’s temple.

“What are you doin’?” came a weak voice from next to him. It was Rose. Immediately he knew she was in grave danger.

“No,” the Doctor whined, but his mind defences were addled. The big metaphorical hand touched the Pons in his head, and he quickly dropped unwillingly to sleep.


	24. 15th July 2013, 21:33:04

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose finally remembers what happened to her while at the UNIT hospital.

Rose woke up, feeling strangely reinvigorated.

She opened her eyes carefully, and immediately was hit by memories. She had been in the TARDIS in the dark, with the Doctor lying on the grating, and a dark figure reaching for his head …

She sat up immediately. “Doctor!” she cried.

“Shh,” someone said, and the black figure stepped into view.

Rose immediately scrambled to her feet. “Who are you!? Where’s the Doctor!?”

“Over there,” the figure replied, and pointed across the room. Rose followed the finger, and saw the Doctor lying on some blankets on the floor, gasping terribly. He was shaking, pale and covered in a sheen of sweat, his jacket and shirt open to reveal a mass of dressings covering his stomach. He was most definitely unconscious, but was still whining with every breath.

“What have you done!?” she gasped, running to her husband.

“He’s been shot by a Time Agency Klasco gun,” the man in black replied calmly. “Normally survivable by Time Lords, but with the state his body’s in he’s going to die very, very soon. He needs to regenerate, and it has to be in the same body.”

Rose looked at the man, her hands still cradling her husband’s head. “But… we don’t have the memory.”

The man looked her up and down for a long moment.

“What?” she asked.

“You ate the Via Purifico, didn't you?”

“Yeah ...” she answered slowly, confused.

“You’ll find out soon.”

Rose couldn’t even begin to process this; struggling to even think of what could possibly be her first question of about three hundred lined up spasmodically inside her head. “Who  _ are  _ you?”

The man ignored her question. “I have the kids.”

Rose was upright again, squaring herself up against him. “Let them go!” she ordered furiously.

“Calm down, they’re okay,” the man insisted.

“Let me see them!”

“I can’t.”

“Why not!?” she demanded to know.

“The Doctor is about to regenerate. Do you  _ really  _ want them to watch what he has to do before he can do that?”

“This is …” Rose began, nearly speechless at his replies. She usually knew a baddie when she saw one these days. Not this time. “Why the hell should I believe you? How do I know they're okay?”

The man sighed a hefty sigh. “Oh, you're still hard work, aren't you?”

Rose's eyes narrowed. "Do I know you?"

The man sighed again. He was dark-haired, flopping down over his forehead, with a prominent jaw. Bright blue eyes drilled into hers. He was strangely familiar, but somehow at the same time she didn't recognise him.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

He avoided the question. "Rose, we don’t have time for this. Leah, Alex and Kiana are sleeping, and will continue to sleep until you and the Doctor are both able to get to them. They’re safe and well. If they had stayed in the Tardis they would've been in serious danger. Little bodies don't cope well in turbulence."

"Oh god, the crash," Rose realised, alarmed. "Are they okay?"

"Some knocks and bumps but I've taken care of them.”

"What about Jack and Brax and everyone?"

"You crashed very badly but I’m sure they can handle themselves for now."

She sighed, hand on head, desperately trying to figure it all out. "Okay. Wait," she stopped herself looking at the room they were in. It was relatively large, but old. There were no windows, but plenty of dust, old furniture and a single light bulb hanging in the centre of the room. On her right was some stairs, leading up to the only door. If she didn't know better, she'd say it was a basement. "Where are we?"

The man pulled a face. "Forget it, it doesn’t matter," he said. 

She still couldn't recognise his face. So why was it so familiar?

"I'll leave you now," the man said, turning to the stairs. "Good luck with the regeneration."

"No," Rose said quickly. "Please let me see the kids. I won't wake them, I promise, I just want to see they're okay."

"For the last time, they're okay," the man persisted, getting visibly annoyed now. "Focus on the Doctor." In indication, he looked at the Doctor, and in turn an upturned bucket in the centre of the room on which rested a scalpel.

Rose looked at the bucket, confused, but before she could ask anything else the man was gone, the door locking behind him.

"Wait!" she cried, but he'd gone.

She turned back to the Doctor, before quickly running to him. Almost immediately he shifted a little and his eyes opened, looking straight at her.

"Rose?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she confirmed, resting a hand on his face.

"Where are we?" he croaked.

"I don't know," she confessed. "I think it's Earth."

"I need to ... regenerate," he moaned, barely able to focus.

"I know," she said softly, looking down at his stomach where the dressings covered the bullet wound. "But there was this guy. He said we'd get our memory soon."

"Who?" he whispered. His lips were turning blue.

"He wouldn't tell me. But it was weird, like I recognised him, but I know I didn't know him. He's treated your bullet wound."

The Doctor frowned. He was still gasping, his entire chest heaving.

"He said he took the kids too. To keep them safe. They're asleep and won't wake up until we get there. Can you check the bond?"

The Doctor closed his eyes momentarily before opening them again. "They feel okay ... You trust him?" he gasped.

"... Yes," she said after a long pause. "I think he's tryin' to help."

"He said about t-the memory...?"

"He kinda looked at me and said we'd get our memory soon and you had to regenerate into the same body. He asked if I ate the via purifico."

The Doctor nodded, almost imperceptibly. "How... long?" he forced out.

"I don't know," she said quietly. "Soon."

"I don't know how... long I can hold on..." he admitted.

"We need to try," she said quietly, and looked him up and down again. "I'm sorry."

"I'll keep going... for as long as I can," he said.

She nodded. "I love you," she said, kissing him.

"The things I do for you," he said, before suddenly screwing up his eyes and groaning deeply. "Where's ... Where's everyone?"

"The guy said they were still in the Tardis."

He nodded.

"Do we trust him?" she asked quietly, glancing up at the door.

"If you trust him ... So do I."

"He seems to be tryin’ to help and ..." She suddenly trailed off, her hand moving to her belly. Her brow rapidly creased.

"Rose?" the Doctor croaked.

She barely heard him as suddenly her belly stabbed through with horrendous pain. She screamed out, her eyes snapping shut ...

"Rose!"

She could feel something warm spreading out her legs. She only had three seconds of clarity to realise it was blood, before she began to hyperventilate.

"Help! Somebody help!" she heard the Doctor cry. She'd never heard him cry out like that before. Her breathing quickly became worse. She could barely suck in oxygen, and now she was beginning to become light-headed. 

She knew this. She'd done this before. When she'd ...

She looked up at the Doctor sharply as he too suddenly cried out, curling in on himself. But it wasn’t the bullet wound, she knew. He was sharing what was happening to her, sharing her pain. Something horrific. Something so familiar. Something ...

The Doctor passed out, but she didn’t. She was suddenly being hit full force by a memory, a memory that had been dormant in her mind for two years ...

* * *

**17th February 2010, 20:04:37**

_ “It's okay. They’re dead,” a man said from above Rose. _

_ “Who ...?” Rose moaned, barely able to focus on his face. “Who are you...?” _

_ The man seemed to ignore the question. “Can you remember what happened?” _

_ “I was … We were gettin’ the Doctor, he’d just had his arm severed ... The creatures that took Leah were tryin’ to sell him off to the Sycorax ... I was so angry ... I wanted to kill them for what they'd done to the Doctor ... So I started walkin' back ... Then ... an explosion!” she realised, her eyes widening. “It knocked me out …” _

_ “Yes.” _

_ She blinked a few times until she brought the man into focus. He was dark-haired, flopping down over his forehead, with a prominent chin. Bright blue eyes drilled into hers. “Who are you?” she asked again. _

_ “I’m the Master. I regenerated.” _

_ Rose immediately tensed, feeling quite, quite sick. “Stay away!” she choked out, backing away, her hands in the dirt and leaves. _

_ The Master didn't react to her fear in the way he normally would. No taunts. Not even a smile at her expense. “I'm not going to do anything to you. Believe it or not, I’m on your side.” _

_ “Liar!” she gasped out, but quickly realised she really wasn't going to get very far. “No, no, no...” she sobbed, tears instantly commencing through pain and utter fear.  _

_ “Please, calm down,” the Master said, stepping forward straight towards her. _

_ Rose immediately flinched, covering herself with her arms. The seconds dribbled by, but absolutely nothing happened. She dared to open her eyes, just to slits, and looked up. _

_ The Master was offering her a hand up. _

_ Instead of relaxing, Rose tensed even more. “No,” she said, denying the situation. “Stop it!” _

_ “Please let me help you,” the Master pleaded, clearly beginning to get a little frustrated. “I need to get you back to the Doctor's protection.” _

_ “What're you talkin' about?” Rose demanded to know, still defensive. “What are you tryin' to do!?” _

_ “I'm trying to help you,” the Master said seriously. “I need you to calm down. Then I can get you back to the Tardis to get the Doctor to hospital.” _

_ She faltered at that, her breath caught in her throat. She took a long moment to gaze into his eyes, where she could see nothing of the man she knew before. _

_ “What are you doin'?” she practically whispered. _

_ “Trying to help, if you’ll let me,” the Master said facetiously. _

_ “What?” _

_ “I need to do something with you. It’s not going to be pretty, but it’ll help you in the long term.” _

_ “Do something?”  _

_ “I'm so sorry,” he said, utterly sincere without a hint of malice in his eyes. Just sadness. _

_ This shook her even more. “... What?” _

_ “When I do this, I'll block out your memory of you and me ever meeting. Then you and the Doctor will have a rough time, and will have to erase your memories. In a few years you will remember all of this. But in order for your future to play out, you need to sacrifice one thing.” _

_ “What?” _

_ His expression didn't change. “I need to make you miscarry.” _

_ Rose's eyes shot open, glancing down at her belly in horror. “My ... What!?” she said for the third time. _

_ “You're pregnant,” the Master said. “But I need to make you miscarry.” _

_ “Why?” _

_ “If you don't have a miscarriage, your family will be killed and the entire Earth will be destroyed, and the universe will eventually be consumed in a massive paradox.” _

_ Rose began to back away, instinctively putting her arms around herself. “You can't!” _

_ The Master closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep breath before opening them once more to look at her under heavy eyelids. “The Doctor must have told you about paradoxes and the damage they can do. If there's no miscarriage, there’s no future.” _

_ Rose swallowed. “I can't let it happen.” _

_ “You’ll be okay. You need this. We need this.” _

_ Rose took some long, slow, deep breaths, looking down at her belly where she now knew a baby was forming. Her's. The Doctor's. She couldn't just let it die while it was still inside her, could she? She couldn't do that, not to the baby, and definitely not to the Doctor. She couldn't let it be murdered. _

_ “I suppose I'm just gonna have to believe you, am I?” she snapped, glaring at him. _

_ “Yes,” he said softly. _

_ This threw her completely, having expected a fight. But he hadn't. He just stood there, absolutely immobile. He was absolutely nothing like the Master she knew. _

_ “You having a miscarriage will save your family and the Earth, and eventually the entire Universe,” the Master repeated once more, oozing patience. “I am so, so, sorry, believe me, but there’s no alternative.” _

_ There was a very long pause as she struggled to work it all out in her head. _

_ The Master stepped forward once more. “One pill,” he said, holding out his hand with a single, tiny purple pill sat in the centre of his palm. It seemed so harmless. _

_ She didn't take it. “Will it hurt?” _

_ “Your body will react and the Doctor's will also react, but not severely. After the initial shock, you’ll both be fine.” _

_ “I meant the baby,” Rose whispered. _

_ “He won't feel anything,” the Master assured her. _

_ She looked up immediately, tears lingering in her eyes. “... It's a he? How d'you know?” _

_ The Master winced, mostly at himself for letting it slip. He couldn't turn back now. “I'm from the future where he’s born.” _

_ “What's his name?” she asked, and the Master frowned a little. Rose stepped forward immediately, staring at him unblinkingly. “Please. Tell me his name.” _

_ “... Noel.” _

_ “It can't be that bad if you've seen Noel,” Rose said quickly, confidently. _

_ The Master looked away for a moment, muttering under his breath before turning back. “Okay. I'll show you.” _

_ He gestured for her to rest her hand on his arm, and he raised his wrist where a vortex manipulator sat comfortably. He programmed it, and suddenly the forest was gone, replaced by a ramshackled old building, largely destroyed. Outside she could only hear the crackling of fire. _

_ “We’re five years into your future. The human race is dead. Planet Earth is burning,” the Master explained. _

_ “What the hell happened?” Rose croaked. _

_ “Noel was born.” _

_ “You keep sayin' that,” Rose began, frustrated. “But why? It's just a baby. My baby. Our baby! What makes him so bad? How can a baby have done this!?” _

_ “It's not him - it's the Proclamation. You, the Doctor and Leah are about to be captured by the Proclamation. If you carry this current baby to term, he will be born inside the Proclamation. From that point on, everything falls to pieces.” _

_ “How?” _

_ “The Proclamation will control how he’s raised and subject him to a host of experiments that slowly break his brain apart. You will be imprisoned to keep him alive. The Doctor will be sent to Volag-noc for three years to get him out of the way.” _

_ “What about Leah?” _

_ The Master looked at her. “What do you think?” _

_ Rose's jaw dropped. “They don't ...” _

_ He nodded, but didn't dwell on it. “Eventually the Doctor will break out of Volag-noc and go back to the Proclamation, but he’ll find three-year-old Noel as the subject of their experiments. Noel’s psychokinetic powers will be extremely high and uncontrollable. Noel will cause the death of the whole Proclamation when he blows up the entire station, including the Tardis. You’ll be so badly injured by the explosion, Rose, you’ll be brain-dead. The Doctor won’t be able to take you, so he’ll take Noel and go back to Earth for help. But at the same time, the Great Hunters will arrive.’ _

_ Rose’s mouth had dried. “... Great Hunters?” _

_ “The Great Hunters are a group of savages from the end of the universe. They can destroy an entire planet within a day. They follow large energy signals in hopes of finding fresh worlds to consume. In your future, the energy signal they find is Noel’s telepathy. So they’ll follow it to Earth.” _

_ Rose involuntarily shuddered, but didn't say a word. _

_ “The Doctor will arrive on Earth with about three Great Hunters on his back. Most of Torchwood will die trying to save him and Noel. The Doctor will be badly mauled, but with your bond and brain-death he won’t be able to regenerate. Jack will take him and Noel to Sarah's, hoping Mr Smith will be able to shield them. Mr Smith won’t be able to for very long. Sarah and Luke will die, and Jack will take the Doctor and Noel on. _

_ “By this point most of the world will be in ruins and the human race cut down to a handful of survivors. Jack does a good job, he’ll keep him, the Doctor and Noel together for a long time. They’ll run for a year trying to find an escape, but no other planet will dare to help the Earth for fear of attracting the Great Hunters. The Doctor and Jack will eventually realise there’s nothing they can do. They’ll have nowhere to go and no way to fight back.” _

_ He paused, and looked at the building in front of them. “And now here they are. This is it. This is how they die.” _

_ He led her to the side of the building, to a point they wouldn’t be detected. There was the group sitting on the ground, huddled together closely conversing in mutters before Jack suddenly got up. _

_ “This is it,” Jack supposed. _

_ The Doctor looked up at him. Rose immediately recoiled at the fact that he no longer seemed to have a right eye, just a mess of red and black where it should have been, the side of his face looking almost gouged out. _

_ “Thank you for everything, Jack,” the Doctor said sincerely. _

_ Jack nodded, just once, gazing at him. “... I'll always remember you.” _

_ “Get going,” the Doctor said, and Jack leant down to give him a kiss, which he also gave to Noel. _

_ “See you in hell,” Jack said with a smile, but it was forced. Then with an insincere salute, Jack turned, and left the building. _

_ “Da,” Noel suddenly said, secure in the Doctor's arms – arms covered in blood. His left arm was missing, too. “I love you.” _

_ “I love you too,” the Doctor replied, kissing him. _

_ “I wish Mummy was here.” _

_ “I know. Me too,” the Doctor confessed. “And your sister. But if we're really, really lucky, we'll get to see them in just a bit.” He looked through the window to the sky above. The Great Hunters were closing in. He quickly turned back to Noel. “Okay, close your eyes.” _

_ Noel snapped his eyes shut. “Yeah.” _

_ “Imagine it's your birthday. Mum, your big sister, Jack, Martha ... everyone, we're all there, we're around you. Got it?” the Doctor asked. _

_ “Yeah ...” _

_ “What's in front of you?” _

_ Noel giggled. “Big present.” _

_ “What does it look like?” _

_ “Square.” _

_ “Colour?” _

_ “Red. With big gold bow on top,” Noel added, still smiling. _

_ “Good. What d'you reckon it is?” _

_ “Dinosaur?” _

_ “Better than that.” _

_ “A dragon!” Noel burst out, giggling again. _

_ The Doctor mock frowned. “In that little box? Let's be realistic.” _

_ “A little dragon!” Noel amended. _

_ “Even better than that.” _

_ Noel looked up at him, eyes open, frowning. “What's better than that?” _

_ The Doctor just smiled. “Hold out your hands.” _

_ Noel did so, his tiny palms held out in front of him. _

_ “Eyes closed, no peeking,” the Doctor insisted. _

_ “‘Kay,” Noel said, but couldn't resist a little look. _

_ “You're peeking,” the Doctor chastised. _

_ “I'm not!” Noel protested, seemingly utterly innocent. _

_ The Doctor's smile widened. “Eyes tightly closed.” _

_ “I am.” _

_ “So what does the present look like?” the Doctor asked again. _

_ “Red box with a bow.” _

_ “Count back from ten, and it'll be in your hands. But you need to concentrate.” _

_ Noel nodded fervently. “Okay. Ten ... nine ... eight ...” _

_ The Doctor looked out of the window again. The Great Hunters were coming for them. There was no running now. _

_ “Seven ... Six ... ” _

_ The Doctor quietly reached inside his pocket, bringing out his heavily modified sonic screwdriver. He looked at it for a moment, twirling it around in his fingers. _

_ “Five ... Four ...” _

_ The Doctor pulled Noel in closer, kissing him in the forehead as he placed the end of the sonic over Noel's left heart. _

_ “Three ... Two ...” _

_ The Doctor pressed the button. Noel suddenly frowned, his brow creasing... _

_ “One ...” he whispered out, and still with his eyes closed, the little boy sagged quietly and gently in the Doctor's arms. The Doctor dropped his sonic immediately, holding his son tightly to his chest, his lips pressed to the boy's forehead.  _

_ “He killed him!” Rose realised in a gasp. “He ... Why did he kill Noel!?” _

_ “Wait,” the Master muttered, and suddenly the question was answered for her. A Great Hunter suddenly smashed the roof off, a huge clawed hand covered in blood thrusting into the cathedral and groping around. Immediately Rose knew what would happen, and why the Doctor had killed Noel. _

_ An act of kindness. _

_ “No!” she cried, burying his head in her hands, her fingers reaching around to cover her ears desperately as the Doctor's screams began ... _

_ Suddenly the screaming stopped as Rose felt a jolt, and looked up to find herself in the forest again, the Master looking at her with concern. She slowly rose her head up, blinking back tears. She suddenly felt so very cold. _

_ “I won't remember this?” she croaked. _

_ The Master shook his head. “Not until you need to. I’m stopping a larger paradox by creating a smaller one. You will be living inside a paradox for a few years, but this one is resolvable. If you ignore me and let Noel be born, that’s the future that will happen.” _

_ There was a long pause, before Rose straightened up, and nodded. “Do it.” _

_ “Are you sure?” _

_ She nodded. “Yeah. I can't let that future happen.” _

_ The Master held out the pill again, absolutely silent. She took it out of his hand, and swallowed it in one go. _

_ “I'll take you back to the Tardis,” the Master said, taking her arm. _

_ “Why are you doin' this?” Rose asked seriously. “Why help me?” _

_ “Because in the future the Doctor will do something so extraordinary for me that I will never be able to repay it. I can't tell you what that is, but not even this repays it.” _

_ Rose gazed at him at they walked. There still wasn't a hint of malice in his eyes. “What the hell did he do for you?” she asked seriously, almost fearfully. _

_ “I can't tell you.” _

_ Rose sighed. “But I’ve gotta be able do somethin’.” _

_ They had reached the TARDIS, the both of them stopping outside. He turned to face her, still looking very serious. “When you remember this conversation, you can't tell him about him doing anything for me. If he acts of his own accord there’s a chance I can help him. Him trying to change his future isn't going to help anyone.” _

_ She could only nod.  _

_ He reached up to her temples. Suddenly he was in her mind – but it didn't feel like the Doctor felt. The Doctor was soft, gentle, probing. He was seemingly able to flutter around her mind like a butterfly that had been on a diet. It almost tickled when he did it to her. But the Master, he was much more abrupt – the little version of him she could feel inside her head stampeding around, unfamiliar with the layout of her mind. It didn't tickle, it almost hurt. But she drew breath, forcing herself to steel and bear this until the Master finally withdrew and... _

_ Wait a minute. What had just happened? She had been ... Who …? _

_ Never mind. _

_ She stepped into the TARDIS, blood all down her front. Jack stood there, staring at her in horror. She had no idea why. But she didn't care about him, because draped on the captain's chair was the Doctor, his arm nearly severed ... _

_ She had to get him back to UNIT for treatment. _

_ “Jack, call ahead to Martha!” she ordered, yanking what she hoped was the return lever. It worked. _


	25. 15th July 2013, 21:45:21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose come to terms with their past, before the Doctor finally succumbs.

The Doctor woke up, curled in on himself on his side, pain shooting right through him to such a degree he didn’t dare to twitch. He convinced himself to open his eyes, slowly, until he gained a perfect view of his human wife lying on the floor, blood everywhere.

"No, Rose!" he said desperately, wanting to reach out but he couldn’t muster the energy to move. "Rose!"

She suddenly shifted on the floor, blinking rapidly. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Rose, talk to me!” he begged.

She seemed to ignore him completely, looking down at her stomach in horror. "Oh my god."

"Rose!" he persisted.

She finally looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Doctor ..."

"You're bleeding, we need to ..."

"No, Doctor, don't you see it?" she asked seriously, pointing at the floor where she sat in a puddle of her own blood.

"Don't play games!" he shouted, annoyed.

"No ... Oh god, you never saw it. You were in surgery ..."

"What!?"

"The memory!" she cried, gesturing to the blood again. “Two years ago in the Unit hospital. You and me went to the teleport in the basement, remember?”

He stared at her, stunned by the question. “What!?” he said again.

“You remember, don’t ya? We got onto the creature’s ship, we found Leah and Jack, yeah?”

“Rose, we d-don’t have  _ time  _ t-to …”

“No, just shut up!” she implored. “Listen, you have to remember. When we were escapin’ we got stopped by this massive creature, it threw you against the wall, knocked you out, and you nearly got your arm severed off in the teleport … Can you remember that? Just think!”

* * *

**17th February 2010, 19:50:00**

_ Suddenly the creature was completely focused on Jack. It threw the Doctor across the room like it was tossing a ping-pong ball, the Time Lord flying through the air and smacking into the wall behind the teleport; knocked out on impact. _

_ That was all Jack got to see as every single tentacle focused on him. He knew he wasn't going to last long, but he had to get Rose and Leah to the teleport... _

_ Then Jack heard a sudden, strange, high-pitched whining. He turned his head in its direction, and instantly went cold inside. _

_ The Doctor's right arm was in the teleport. The rest of his body was not. _

_ Jack's eyes snapped to Rose. “Get him out of the teleport! It's gonna take off his arm!” _

* * *

**15th July 2013, 21:46:03**

The Doctor looked down at his arm, seeing through the fabric to where he knew a ring of red ran around to denote it had been nearly cut off.

“But while you were out the creatures grabbed me, started suckin’ the life out of me. We escaped but the creatures had you as prisoner, but…” She paused, swallowing. “… We stole you back, you went into surgery, yeah? But … do you remember it? D’you remember what happened next?” 

* * *

**18th February 2010, 00:08:47**

_ "Why does my arm hurt?" he asked genuinely, looking at his plastered arm. "What's all this stuff on it?" _

_ Rose sniffed, taking his working hand to squeeze it reassuringly. "You hurt it. But you'll get better. Just don't move it, yeah?" _

_ "Why not?" he asked, and moved it. He instantly cried out in pain again, the tear tracks staining his face very quickly. _

_ Rose swallowed, wiping his cheeks dry with her hand. "Don't move it, yeah? It hurts you." _

_ "Mmm," he agreed, and then looked back at her. "Rose, you've been crying. Who made you cry?" _

* * *

**15th July 2013, 21:46:11**

“You… you were so sad,” the Doctor muttered.

“Yeah, d’you remember why?”

* * *

**18th February 2010, 00:08:38**

_ “Sorry I took so long. I... I need to talk to you... Because... Because I had...” She paused for a moment, swallowing her tears and wiping her eyes before managing to continue, “because I had a...” _

* * *

**15th July 2013, 21:46:20**

The Doctor screwed up his eyes, desperately trying to place himself inside the memory to get that last word…

* * *

**2nd March 2010, 10:46:25**

_ “Doctor... I... I had a miscarriage.” _

* * *

**15th July 2013, 21:46:25**

The Doctor’s eyes snapped open, focusing on Rose’s face inches from his own. “... You miscarried.”

* * *

**6th March 2010, 19:46:30**

_ “Get off of me,” the Doctor grated, pushing her away. He was angry, now. “Don't touch me.” _

_ And within a second Rose was angry again too. “Why are you bein' like this?!” _

_ Without a word, he turned and made to leave once more. Rose grabbed his arm again and yanked him back. “You can't just deny this, Doctor! You can't just run from everythin'!” _

_ “Let go of me!” he yelled, pulling his arm out of her grip. _

_ “Fine!” she screamed back. “I thought I knew you, I had you down as so many things but coward wasn't one of them!” _

_ “I'm not a coward!” _

_ “You weren't before now, but I don't even know you anymore!” she yelled. “Just talk to me!” _

_ He turned again. _

_ “Go on, run away from me, then!” she shouted, absolutely red in the face. “Leave me and Leah here!” _

_ He spun back around in a second, furious with his finger in the air. “I'm having Leah and the Tardis is mine!” _

_ “You are not havin' Leah!” _

_ “Yes, I am! If you want to leave, then leave!” _

_ “Fuck you, you heartless bastard!” she screamed, turned and ran out of the door. _

_ “Who's running now?!” the Doctor yelled after her, but there was no reply. _

* * *

**15th July 2013, 21:46:30**

“... I was broken,” the Doctor croaked. “I … I couldn’t cope. We argued …  _ so  _ much …”

* * *

**6th March 2010, 19:52:36**

_ “I need to cry, but I've just ... I've just been angry. It's scaring me. I'm scared I don't understand. I've never felt this bad before. Everything's wrong, everything's hurting. And today I was looking at Leah, she was smiling and I just thought ... What if she never happened? Then I think about the baby and how it could've been another one just like Leah and now ... Now it's not ever going to be. It's gone forever, and we'll never even know. I almost want to ... to replace it with another child ... I feel like we have to fill this gap. But I know I don't want to. Does that make sense?” _

_ “Yeah, it does,” she told him gently. “That's what I feel like.” _

_ “It just feels like a bit of me has...” _

_ “Died?” _

_ “Yeah.” _

_ “A bit you didn't even know existed?” _

_ “Yeah...” _

_ “... It's really okay to cry.” _

_ He closed his eyes, and his shoulders began to shake before finally the building tears erupted, and he began to cry. Rose held him tightly, kissing him through the tears before she joined him in the shared grief. Jack moved in to hug them both, letting them just expel their emotions. _

_ When it was over they all took a step back from each other, tears still lingering in their eyes. _

_ “We can get through this, yeah?” Rose said, as if trying to convince everyone in the room as well as herself. “I still love you.” _

_ The Doctor didn't answer that. _

_ “Doctor?” she prompted. “We can get through this, right?” _

_ His eyes were filling up again. “Oh, Rose, I hate this.” _

_ “What?” _

_ “... I... I don't think I love you anymore.” _

* * *

**15th July 2013, 21:46:36**

“... I said I didn’t l-love you ... anymore.”

Rose’s eyes disconnected from his. “... Yeah,” was all she managed to croak.

The Doctor’s eyes drifted to her belly. “You … you m-miscarried again ... didn’t you? I felt it …”

“Yeah … I guess the Via Purifico worked,” she said quietly. “It made me miscarry.”

There was a long pause as they both just stared blankly at nothing, taking it in.

“Hey,” the Doctor suddenly said, looking back at her.

She flinched, staring at him apprehensively.

“It’s okay.”

Rose continued to stare at him. “... You’re not mad?”

“C’mon. How ... could I b-be mad?”

“... You were last time,” she whispered.

“I didn’t und-derstand it,” the Doctor replied strongly.

“And now you do?”

“We’ve been together ... for too l-long, Rose. We were b-barely into our … our relationship. I freaked out, and y-you ... you couldn’t handle me … me freaking out. We d-didn’t know each other w-well enough.”

Rose swallowed. “... So what’s changed?”

The Doctor screwed up his face. “I think s-somewhere along... t-the way we grew up.”

Rose suddenly giggled, her wet eyes lighting up. “Don’t say scary words like ‘grew up’.”

The Doctor smiled again. “Sorry. B-but I’m okay. I’m sad, but … we c-can’t change it. What about y-you?”

“I’m okay,” she said, tears in the corner of her eyes.

He nodded. “I l-love you.”

“I love you too,” she said, and hugged him. They held each other for a very long time, sharing a kiss.

When they finally pulled back, Rose’s eyes were shining. “Hey, Doctor.”

“What?”

“We’ve finally got the memory. You can regenerate now.”

He smiled, kissing her again. “Yeah.”

“When do we do it? Can we do it now?”

He looked around at their surroundings, frowning slightly. “If I reg-generate here…”

“I’ll look after you,” she insisted. “I’ll get everyone out.”

“But… post-regener… ation s-sickness…”

“I’ll look after you,” Rose repeated. “Trust me.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“So what do I do?”

He suddenly looked very awkward. “I’m r-really sorry ... but I n-need you to … to help me k-kill myself.”

Rose felt her body temperature drop instantaneously by about five degrees. She’d forgotten about that. “... How?” she croaked.

The Doctor gazed at her. She was shaking slightly. “Are you ... sure you w-want to do this?” he asked, concerned.

Rose nodded quickly. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “Tell me what I need to do.”

He looked at her for a little longer, before inclining his head to the upturned bucket and scalpel.

Rose nodded, getting it immediately and forcing herself up to collect the knife and the bucket before dragging them back to the Doctor.

“Sit m-me up,” he said.

She obediently and very carefully slipped her arms under his. She pulled, and he immediately screamed.

She stopped immediately. “Sorry!” she cried, freezing in position.

“K-keep ... go-going,” he gasped out.

She had no choice but to trust him. She pulled again and once more he screamed, but this time she tried her hardest to ignore it and continued pulling him until he was sitting up against the wall, gasping.

“Sorry,” she said again, kissing his forehead.

“S’ok,” he moaned. “B-balance my arm over … the ... the bucket,” he ordered her gently.

She did, picking up his dead left arm carefully with both hands, placing it over the bucket so it balanced on the rim.

“Bit c-closer,” he said, and she pushed the bucket and his arm further towards him. He smiled at her weakly. 

She felt like throwing up as she held the knife, the sharp blade facing outwards. She didn’t need to be a genius to work out what happened next.

“Okay, n-now listen. Lo-look at ... me,” he said, and she quickly looked up at his face, trying not to cry. “You h-have to s-sever my br … brachial art-tery. I’ll keep m-myself alive ‘til every … every last drip of bl-blood is g-gone, so … so there’s no m-more Magh … mar or alere fl-flamman l-left in my ... b-body.”

“Every drop?” Rose asked, but it barely came out as a whisper.

“Yes.”

“But … we didn’t have to before …”

The Doctor took a deep breath, trying desperately to control his faltering voice and forcing out the syllables. “The al … alere fl-flamman wasn’t too p-potent and my blood was f-fairly clean. I’m ... full of ch-chemicals now. Chemicals and re … reg-generation isn’t a good … good mix. It m-might make the … the post-regeneration si-sickness worse, and I don’t w-wanna be s-singing the … the Tweenies theme as y-you’re trying to … to g-get us out.”

She swallowed. “Please don’t joke,” she croaked.

He acknowledged that. “S-sorry.”

Rose just nodded, signifying she understood. She couldn’t think of a single word to say.

He took another deep breath, his eyes seemingly bulging in his skull with the pain he was in. “As s-soon as I … as I … s-start to g-go warm and t-turn … gold, grab me tight,” he continued. “Ima … Imag-gine my b-body as you s-see it now, with … with all th-the p-power you … you can. But d-don’t get in th-the … th … the way of th-the l-light.”

She nodded again.

“Un … Unders-stand?” he asked, his eyes welling from the amount of pain he was in, sniffing.

She nodded a third time.

“S-say … yes,” he prompted.

“... Yes,” she whispered. “Ready.”

“Okay, p-put the knife … on … on my a-arm.”

She did.

“Up … uppa bit,” he slurred. “B-bit more … There. P-Push as … h-hard as … y-you can …”

Rose tightly closed her eyes. “Ok.”

“D-do it,” he prompted.

She reached out a hand finding his leg. She gripped it, her heartbeat pumping in her ears. She pushed down on the knife, heard him wince, and after a few seconds there was a dribbling sound, like filling a bucket with a tap.

“Oh god, I can’t,” Rose whispered, trying to block off her ears.

She let go of the scalpel, which hit the floor as she blindly reached out for the Doctor’s left hand. She opened her eyes to meet his gaze.

“You … can d-do this,” the Doctor told her firmly. 

“This is awful …”

“It’s ok-kay. Rem-member ... Tom and … and M-Martha’s wedding?”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Rem-member it?”

“Why are we talkin’ about  _ that?” _

“C’mon,” he said gently, smiling weakly. “H-humour me.”

She sniffed, her entire body seemingly going dead. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Remember ... I … I w-wouldn’t dance?”

“Yeah.”

“What s-song ... was … was it?”

“I can’t remember,” she sobbed out.

“Yes, y-you ... can,” he encouraged. 

She sniffed again, pushing the hair out of her eyes. “Happy Together.”

“Re … remember what y-you … swore ... swore to m-me?”

She wiped a tear away. “I said… I swore that I’d make you dance to it.”

“Rem-memb-ber what … what I p-picked for our first d-dance?”

She looked at him again. “... Happy Together.”

He grinned at her. “You n-never even … even realised, d-did you?”

Not for the first time she couldn’t resist a smile at his beautiful grin even in the messy situation.

“S-sing it,” he suddenly said.

That caught her by surprise. “What?”

“Sing it.”

“Seriously?”

“Please ... sing it.”

“I can’t …”

“It’ll h-help the … the reg-generation.”

“Liar.”

He widened his grin. “Okay, got … got me. But p-please do.”

She sniffed again as more tears escaped. “You’re tryin’ to distract me.”

“Yes,” he replied honestly. 

She took a breath, covering her face before cool, gentle fingers pushed her chin up back to look at him. All the while the tap continued to run, but she was never going to look at it. Instead she fixed her gaze to his; his two deep brown, warm, loving eyes staring right back at her.

“... You’ve never heard me sing,” she said quietly, and forced a smile. “It’s like a bag of cats.”

He smiled back at that. “I’ve h-heard you.”

“When?”

“In the … the shower.”

“You listen to me in the shower?”

“You st-stare at me in … in the sh-shower,” he countered. “I think I’m al-llowed to… to listen.”

“That’s different, that’s … oh god,” she whispered, covering her eyes again. “How can I sing now?”

“Please,” the Doctor said again. “For … for me.”

She sighed, moving her legs to reposition as she closed her eyes, running a hand down her face. She quickly opened them again to look at him, sitting there paling rapidly, his head lolled on the concrete wall.

“What?” he asked. “W-waiting for a c-cue?”

“Don’t laugh.”

“What d’you t-take … me ... me for?” he asked seriously. 

She sighed and closed her eyes again, wiping at her cheeks before opening her mouth, forcing out the words, but they came out with no power - a haunting, high-pitched melody over the sound of the tap running. “Imagine me and you ... I do. I think about you day and night ... it's only right, to think about the girl you love, and hold her tight, so happy together …”

“Keep g-going,” the Doctor whispered.

She kept his hand tightly in his, taking a few more deep breaths to try and level her voice before she continued, “if I should call you up, invest a dime, and you say you belong to me, and ease my mind, imagine how the world could be, so very fine … So happy together …”

* * *

**25th December 2006, 08:04:17**

_ “Be honest. How do I look?” _

_ “Umm ... different.” _

_ “Good different or bad different?” _

_ “Just … different.” _

_ “Am I ... ginger?” _

_ “No, you're just sort of ... brown.” _

* * *

**4th April 2009, 13:30:01**

_ “Basically, we've been building this, um ... This ... This time travel machine, this er, dimension cannon, so I could ... Well ... So I could …” _

_ “What?” _

_ “So I could come back! … Shut up.” _

* * *

**21st October 2008, 07:15:15**

_ “She’s beautiful. She’s got your nose.” _

_ “So this is Leah. It’s kinda depressing to know she grows up to be more pretty than me.” _

_ “... Thank you for this. For her.” _

* * *

**25th December 2010, 19:30:46**

_ “Tell me more about Gallifrey.” _

_ “Okay. D'you wanna hear a Time Lord joke?” _

_ “Yeah?” _

_ “What goes bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud?” _

_ “I dunno, what goes bang thud a lot of times?” _

_ “A Time Lord committing suicide."  _

_ “... That's the best you've got?” _

* * *

**1st December 2011, 17:44:57**

_ “Where the hell is your Mum?!”  _

_ “Hey wait, we can't both panic! One of us needs to be calm while the other freaks out.” _

_ “Good point. How about you panic for a bit while I'm calm, then I'll panic for a bit while you're calm, and we just take turns?” _

_ “Okay, that's fair. Can I panic first?” _

_ “Sure.” _

_ “Where the hell is my Mum?!”  _

* * *

**24th October 2012, 22:04:44**

_ “Yeah, you're sweet sometimes but you're not very romantic.” _

_ “I'm always romantic!”  _

_ “Name one romantic thing you've done for me in the past week.” _

_ “I ... umm ... What about Thursday night? You know, after dinner?” _

_ “Doctor, letting me have your last Rolo is not romance.” _

* * *

“Me and you and you and me, no matter how they tossed the dice, it had to be … The only one for me is you, and you for me ... So happy together …”

Rose finished the song, and suddenly realised that the sound of the tap running had stopped. She opened her eyes immediately and found him sitting there with his eyes closed, his skin blue. She gasped immediately, gripping his hand so tightly she thought she might break it as she slammed her eyes shut again and concentrated with every modicum of her being into getting back that body ...

“C’mon, c’mon, please,” she begged under her breath, creating an image in her mind of him. His body, his personality, his everything, and forced it out of her brain towards him through the bond. “Please, please, you can do it …”

His hand began to turn warm in her grip. She opened his eyes, just little, and saw the painfully familiar bright golden hue dancing on his skin.

“Yes,” she implored. “Yes, come on!”

Suddenly his hand snatched away from her, the golden spiral erupting around his head and hands as he arched back, his arms forced outwards. Rose quickly backed away, curling into the foetal position to try and keep away from the light as it continued to spiral out, the sound almost deafening her. She could do nothing but watch and pray that it would be okay.

It seemed to go on forever. She even had enough time to think about what she’d do if he wasn’t the same. What if he got a new face? What if it hadn’t worked?

It didn’t take her long to decide. Not now.

Whatever his face, she just wanted him to smile at her.

The golden light abruptly stopped, and for a moment Rose couldn’t see his face - obscured by the afterenergy. So she remained silent and still, staring at the clouds of gold until they began to dissolve …

_ “Yes!”  _ she cried in triumph, diving forward to him again, grabbing his wrist to check for a pulse. It was going, strong and normal, attached to a thin body topped with messy brown hair, sideburns and that big pouty bottom lip. She felt compelled to throw herself onto him and kiss each of these things, so she did. She even checked his eyes - both of which remained that beautiful brown - and kissed them too. She kissed his nose, his eyebrows, and even checked his chest hair which was all present, kissing that too.

She then drew back to look at him as a whole, his skin warm and glowing like she hadn’t seen for months as he laid there with those bandages on his torso. She quickly pulled them off to reveal the skin was completely healed. The various scars he’d had before were also gone, except his appendectomy scar. For a brief moment she wondered why, but quickly realised that because he’d had his template directly from her she’d probably been the one who’d wanted to keep it.

He looked younger too; about her age. The hair seemed thicker than before, and his eyes were a little bigger. She felt she was obliged to check that the area below had all regenerated fine, and consequently realised that his eyes and hair weren’t the only thing that she had unintentionally made a bit bigger.

“Jesus!” she exclaimed, and looked up at him again. “Doctor?”

As if on cue, his eyes flickered open. The size increase had made him look even cuter than before as he stared up at her, blinking in a daze.

“We did it!” she said triumphantly. “Doctor, you regenerated into the same body! Well, mostly, but I swear I didn’t mean to make your …”

“Ei'holah-o'solnao,” he interrupted quietly, and passed out.

“What? Doctor!” she cried, shaking his shoulder before she quickly forced herself to calm. He was speaking Gallifreyan. He had ...

“Post-regeneration sickness,” the man completed from behind her. “He just said to you that he couldn’t speak Solian.”

Rose turned quickly, and met with the man. Only this time she recognised him from her memory.

“Master,” she whispered, stepping in front of the Doctor to protect him. “If you lay a  _ finger  _ on him …”

The Master sighed. “I thought we were through that. You need my help.”

“What!?”

The Master looked at the Doctor, and then back at her. “... Now comes the hard part.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here endeth! There's a quick oneshot I'll put up next which is a tag-on to this series taking place in the Year That Never Was, then after that there's a novella called Mind Games, which pushes us through the Doctor's awkward regeneration. Thank you for reading!


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